


Back to reality

by Dancingdog



Series: Facebook Prompts [1]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Cannon-verse (ish), F/M, M/M, djinn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-22
Updated: 2017-12-24
Packaged: 2019-02-05 13:49:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 34,366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12795897
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dancingdog/pseuds/Dancingdog
Summary: Dean, Sam, Castiel and Gabriel have a happy life with their girlfriends until a hunt for a pair of djinns goes wrong. They're captured and knocked unconscious and once they wake, they must find a way back home despite being weak and exhausted.Only, during their journey, they notice their relationships with each other are more... complicated than they first thought and they begin to wonder if things can return to normal once they find their way home.Then they begin to doubt any of their journey was real in the first place...





	1. Day 1

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this from a prompt from the Facebook group "Destiel Port: Prompts, Fanfiction, Writings and such". It looked like a good one shot but because it's me it turned out to be a multi-chapter fic.
> 
> Again.
> 
> So, umm... sorry about that. Guess I'll add it to the list of unfinished fics I'm currently working on in between studying and sleeping.
> 
> Going for 4 chapters. Probably be wrong.

The day had started out well enough. Sam and Dean had awoken beside their girlfriends as usual; a smile lighting each of their faces at the sight of their lovers tucked up to their chests and sleeping soundly. 

Sam had remained in bed to admire Jessica’s peaceful features, her skin radiant under the gentle glow of sunlight filtering through the bunker’s tiny windows. She truly was as stunning as the day they’d met. 

Dean had kissed Lisa’s head sweetly before sliding silently out of bed and throwing on the plush robe his girlfriend had bought him last Christmas. It was his turn to make breakfast and he knew blueberry pancakes were a favourite of both Lisa’s and Ben’s.

He padded through the bunker’s corridors at a leisurely pace before arriving at the kitchen, where he immediately set about making coffee and preparing the pancake batter.

“At least we’ll get something edible this morning,” smirked a familiar feminine voice and Dean hissed as his freshly-made coffee made a leap for his hands.

He glared at Meg as she leaned against the fridge, eyes dancing in amusement at his misfortune.

“Don’t do that,” he huffed, running his reddening hand under cold water. “One day I’m going to fit you with a bell.”

The demon quirked her lips at him as Castiel ambled into the kitchen. Meg immediately lost focus of Dean as she whirled to face her angelic lover and she threw herself into his arms and ravished his mouth, making him grunt in surprise.

Dean pulled a face and averted his gaze, giving his attention to the batter as the pair finished up trying to swallow each other’s faces.

“I take it you’ll be joining us for breakfast?” Dean asked, trying to sound indifferent even though they all knew he enjoyed having all his friends with him, including the demon variety (no matter how irritating she could be).

“As long as you’re the chef,” drawled Meg, finally breaking apart from the flustered Castiel.

Dean smirked to himself. Yesterday, Sam had tried cooking breakfast and it had resulted in something roughly the size and density of a brick that was so black it probably could have bent light. Gabriel had also had to repair the oven, but he hadn’t told Sam that. It was still unknown what Sam had been attempting to make.

“Hope you like pancakes,” grunted Dean gruffly as if he wasn’t happy Castiel and Meg were staying for breakfast. 

“Honestly, I prefer crepes, but I’ll work with what I have,” announced a new voice and Castiel and Dean both rolled their eyes as Meg grinned and turned to the new additions.

Gabriel sauntered into the kitchen with a flourish, Kali gliding in after him with the same cool look of superiority that always made Dean feel as though he was about to be devoured. 

Gabriel was quick to make himself at home in the bunker’s kitchen and snapped himself up a hot chocolate and perched on the counter top as he watched Dean work. 

“Those eggs better be fluffy,” he chirped as Kali took his side, blinking slowly at Dean as though he was a particularly fascinating insect. Dean ignored her as usual.

“I don’t remember inviting you,” he muttered and Gabriel took another sip of his hot chocolate.

“You never invite us. We just show up for free food.”

“Which you don’t even need and can’t taste,” griped Dean and Gabriel shook his head with a smirk.

“ _Au contraire, mon amis._ Both Kali and I can taste food just fine. It’s just little Cassie who hasn’t got the hang of clumping molecules together to experience the bigger picture.”

Castiel frowned like a petulant child as Meg bit back a snicker and leaned into her lover’s side. She’d always had a fondness for Gabriel; whether that was due to his pagan quirks or the fact he was so unlike the other archangels remained to be seen. The only thing that was certain was Castiel was her ‘unicorn’.

Whatever that meant.

“Fine, you can stay,” grumbled Dean as though he hadn’t already prepared enough batter for all of them.

It wasn’t long before Jessica and Sam stumbled out of bed, giggling and looking as though they’d had a very _interesting_ morning, and once Ben sped into the room, a rumpled Lisa trudging after him, Dean began doling out breakfast.

Their morning was pleasant and relaxed and everyone chatted amiably until it was time for Lisa and Jessica to leave for work. Jessica was a nurse at the local hospital and Lisa worked as a dance instructor at the arts college in town. They had steady jobs with a steady income and didn’t mind that they were the ones bringing home the cash; in fact, they were quite proud of their lovers for saving people on a regular basis. The world needed hunters like Sam and Dean (and occasionally Castiel and Gabriel) to save it and as long as their boys took care of themselves when facing man-eating monsters, both women were happy to let them get on with their jobs.

Oh, and someone had to take Ben to school each morning. Sam and Dean were allowed to be hunters as long as Ben got to school on time every morning.

Jessica slipped into Sam’s arms and kissed him a little heatedly, some passion remaining from their fun that morning.

“Be careful,” she whispered against his lips and Sam smiled and kissed her jaw before letting her escape to work. Lisa followed a few minutes later, kissing Dean chastely and reminding him not to forget about Ben leaving for school within the next ten minutes. Dean rolled his eyes fondly.

“Yes, dear,” he teased before squeezing her rump cheekily (which she smacked him for) and offering one last kiss before she vanished.

Meg and Castiel were oddly absent when Dean returned to the main area of the bunker and Dean had no intentions of finding out where they’d scampered off to. Ben was gushing excitedly about something to Kali and the goddess was listening silently, a small smile gracing her usually impassive face and Dean shook his head. It never ceased to amaze him how much Kali actually enjoyed being around children; it was something Dean would never have expected from the intimidating goddess. Even Gabriel looked endlessly amused by his lover.

Sam already had his laptop out. He was either scrolling through Wikipedia pages or was looking up a case and Dean would bet twenty dollars it was the latter.

“So, get this,” Sam said, as if on cue and Dean mentally handed himself twenty dollars.

“Two sisters in Wichita went missing a couple weeks ago. Both were found a week later in a cave in the local forest and announced dead at the scene. The funeral was held four days later, where both girls _ripped open their coffin lids and walked out of the church._ It says here that the pair were covered in tattoos and their eyes were glowing a bright blue.”

Dean swirled the cold remnants of his coffee around the mug before casting his gaze to Ben. 

“What do you think, buddy? Tattoos and blue eyes?”

“Easy,” snorted Ben, momentarily distracted from the story Kali was weaving about death and murder and whatever else pagan goddesses discussed in the presence of twelve-year olds. “It’s gotta be a djinn.”

Dean quirked his lips proudly. The kid was certainly learning.

“Got it in one,” Dean winked and Ben beamed before turning back to the patiently waiting Kali.

“Right,” said Sam. “You up for a road trip?”

“Yup,” Dean nodded, rising from his chair. “As soon as I take Ben to school.”

“I’ll take him,” interrupted Kali and Dean cocked an eyebrow.

“Seriously?”

“Well, it’s not like I have any sacrifices to receive,” she sneered as Gabriel bit back a laugh.

Dean shrugged. “As long as you get him there in one piece.”

Kali rolled her eyes as if listening to Dean talk was agonising torture.

“I’ll take the small human to this place of education and knowledge advancement and maybe I won’t have to suffer eternal boredom at the sound of your infuriating voice.”

Sam was full-on grinning as Dean frowned at her.

“I literally just made you breakfast.”

Kali flicked her hair and raised to her feet smoothly, offering her hand to Ben.

“Gather your tiny trinkets and scrolls, small human. I shall take you to your house of learning.”

“School,” corrected Ben as he threw his bag over his shoulder and grasped her hand. Kali nodded solemnly.

“I shall take you to your school,” she amended and Ben smiled up at her before she whisked him out of the bunker.

“Your girlfriend’s a dick,” huffed Dean as he glanced at Gabriel and the archangel chuckled and made his way over to the brothers.

“Guess we make a good pair then, huh?” He winked and Dean finally smiled and raised an eyebrow.

“You coming on this hunt or have you got trickster-archangel stuff to tend to that we shouldn’t ask about?”

Gabriel leaned against the chair with a contemplative expression.

“It’s been a while since I’ve been on a hunt with you guys. I’m getting tired of Heaven’s demands; think I’ll take a few days off. Might be good to stretch my wings on a hunt.”

Dean and Sam grinned, glad for the back-up. There wasn’t much that could hurt an archangel and djinns were known to be tricky.

“Think Cas’ll be down for it?” Asked Sam, powering down his laptop and Gabriel’s gaze glazed over for a moment as he contacted Castiel telepathically through his grace. He grimaced after a few seconds and squeezed his eyes shut.

“That image is burned in,” he groaned and both Sam and Dean winced.

“Maybe ask him later,” advised Gabriel. “Like, in an hour. Or two. Preferably when Meg hasn’t got her tongue shoved into his-”

“ALRIGHT!” Sam and Dean blurted in unison. “We get the picture.”

 

* * *

 

Things went downhill after that. Castiel decided to join them on the hunt whilst Meg disappeared and did… whatever demons do when they’re not entertaining their angelic lovers. The car was crowded and the angels were already pouting and scowling about how they couldn’t all fly there because Dean had a weak constitution, so the hunt didn’t have the greatest of starts, but it had been a long few months since all four men had been on a trip together and it was refreshing to have a ‘guys’ day out’ for once (even if it would probably result in them stabbing or decapitating some form of genie).

They started out by driving to the sisters’ house and questioning the shaken parents. The house was located in the middle of nowhere on a large ranch, surrounded by deciduous woodland that stretched for miles. There were no neighbours (which is probably why the girls weren’t found for a whole week) and apart from the tearful parents, the only other form of life within the ranch were the fifteen thoroughbred horses that wandered the fields, seemingly unaffected by their owners’ sudden change into bloodthirsty monsters.

Castiel and Gabriel wandered around the ranch (most likely to coo over the horses rather than sniff out some clues) as Sam and Dean played their usual roles of FBI agents. 

“They didn’t even recognise us!” Sobbed Mrs. Walters as Mr. Walters held her silently, eyes glazed over. His wife blew her nose into her handkerchief and wailed loudly. She was a larger woman with long, thick blonde locks tied into a messy pony tail. Her husband was a thin-faced man, lean and tall and looking as though he could do with inhaling a few extra calories.

Mrs. Walters cried again. “We don’t even know where they are! Our little babies!”

“We put them in coffins when they were still alive. I’m not surprised they don’t want us to know where they are,” muttered Mr. Walters quietly and Dean tried so hard to school his features into a straight face at that.

Mrs. Walters’ eyes streamed like an overflowing dam.

“We’re terrible parents!”

After that, questioning them had been pointless. They were too distraught to offer any useful answers that might give a clue as to what the daughters’ precise location was, so Sam and Dean bid them farewell and asked them to call if they thought of anything else.

The brothers soon met up with Castiel and Gabriel to see if they’d found any hints as to the sisters’ whereabouts and the angels actually had something helpful to offer.

“There are three corpses chained to the floor in the barn,” said Castiel quietly. “Freshly deceased.”

Sam raised an eyebrow. “So, these things are on the hunt for prey? Fantastic.”

“Let’s go get the lamb’s blood,” grunted Dean before glancing over to the angels. “Come on. You guys need silver blades.”

Gabriel raised an eyebrow and snapped his fingers and in both his and Cas’ hands appeared a couple of silver daggers. 

“Show off,” snorted Dean, making Gabriel quirk a smile. “C’mon, Sam. Lamb’s blood,” continued Dean as he made his way to the Impala. 

The four shuffled away to coat their blades with lambs blood and once they’d achieved their objective, they crept towards the creepy, old barn in search of the sisters.

They didn’t have to go very far.

As soon as Dean pushed the creaky door open, a pair of bright blue eyes framed in a tattooed face blinked back at him.

He shouted in alarm and tried to shove his brother and the angels backwards, but the blonde-haired teen narrowed her eyes at him and her hand sprung out to clench around his neck.

Dean’s yells died abruptly in his throat and he scrabbled at her arm for a few seconds as Sam pushed forwards to drive his blade into the girl’s chest. He failed to spot the other sister lurking behind the door and before he could compute what had happened, he was being pinned against the wall by his throat; a woman no older than nineteen scowling at him.

Sam cried out in horror as Dean’s struggling began to weaken and both Gabriel and Castiel lunged forwards to stab the teen. She immediately dropped the gasping Dean and raised both hands to touch Castiel and Gabriel’s cheeks.

Both angels crumpled to the floor, unconscious.

Sam’s eyes widened in shock and Dean gaped at the pair, and their stunned hesitation was enough to allow both djinns to scowl even deeper and knock them out with a gentle touch.

 

* * *

 

The first thing Sam registered was his blinding headache. His brain felt as though a whole construction crew had taken an assortment of hammers to it. 

His wrists were also stinging and the rest of his body felt bruised and as though it had been trampled by a whole herd of particularly irate buffalo. Everything was dark which meant he was either blind or had his eyes closed. Upon forcing his eyelids open, he realised it was the latter. 

He glanced first at his body, noticing how thin he appeared and the nasty wounds and bruises on his skin from where the djinns had fed and obviously roughed him up a bit. His clothes and flesh were filthy with blood and sweat and dust as though he’d been in the same position for a number of days. When he looked down at his sore wrists, they were chained to floor so he couldn’t stand.

Next, he glanced around his surroundings. He was in the barn. It was dark and dusty and held a lot of broken farm machinery that cast strange shadows within the room, but there was no blue glowing, so that was a positive.

He spotted Dean collapsed a few metres away, in a similar state to him and for a moment his heart stopped because he couldn’t be sure if his brother was already dead. Then he saw Dean’s chest rise and fall and he breathed a soft sigh of relief. His gaze flicked around the room and eventually landed on Castiel and Gabriel on the opposite wall. The pair were slumped over, looking just as disgusting as both humans.

Sam’s heart rate picked up. Unlike Dean, Cas and Gabe didn’t have a pulse. How would he know if they were alive or not?

How had they been knocked out by a single djinn?

Castiel’s eyelids fluttered and the angel grimaced as he forced himself upright after a few moments. He groaned softly and Sam breathed out a second sigh of relief. The angel glanced down his own body with a look of distaste before surveying the rest of the barn, where his eyes eventually landed on Sam.

“Sam?” He asked softly. “Are you alright?”

Sam nodded and Castiel’s gaze flicked to Dean. The angel’s eyes widened for a brief moment of horror.

“He’s alive,” Sam murmured quietly and he saw Castiel visibly relax.

“What happened?” Asked Cas, confused as he glanced at his cuffs. “The djinns. Where are they?”

Sam shook his head, just as puzzled. “You and Gabe went down like a sack of bricks, man. One touch and you were both on the floor.”

Castiel’s face pinched into a frown. “These creatures must possess a lot of strength. I’ve never heard of a djinn overpowering an angel, much less an archangel.”

“Maybe they’re alphas or something? Like, two of the first?” Mused Sam and Castiel fell silent because he had no answers.

Gabriel was the next to wake. He groaned loudly and swung upright, nearly toppling back over again from the force. 

“What happened?” He grunted, scowling at his chains. 

“We were knocked unconscious by the djinn,” muttered Cas before frowning. “They appear to have fed on us for quite some time.”

Gabriel checked his grace and low and behold, it was far weaker than usual, meaning the djinns had slowly been draining their powers.

Gabriel scowled and cast his gaze over to the Winchesters.

“You two alright?” He asked and Sam nodded before gesturing to Dean. 

“Not sure about him. He’s not woken up yet.”

Gabriel scrutinised Dean for a second before gently prodding him with a weak tendril of grace. Dean moaned lowly and straightened out his neck, eyes squeezed shut.

“I feel like I’ve been run over by a truck,” he grumbled and satisfied, Gabriel glanced at his brother.

“You alright, Cas?” He asked quietly. “How’s your grace?”

“Waning,” replied the younger angel. “But it will return eventually.”

“Guys, can you remember any of the dreams?” Asked Sam with a frown. “Because all I remember is getting knocked out and waking up here.”

Dean pulled a face as he grew more alert.

“Why would we remember our dreams? The djinn messes with our heads; what makes you think they’d let us remember?” The older brother shook his head. “It doesn’t matter anyway. We need to find a way out of these chains.”

He tugged on the metal cuffs, hoping to weaken them, but they were thick and strong and made his wrists ache.

“Uh… guys?” Gabriel’s voice floated over in the dim moonlight and Sam and Dean looked over at the angels to find both of them staring at their arms in surprise, their chains shattered and dangling limply below their wrists.

“They were regular bindings,” stated Castiel, sounding puzzled. “No sigils.”

Both humans lifted an eyebrow and Gabriel snapped his fingers, making Sam and Dean’s chains tumble to the floor.

“That was… easy,” said Sam warily. Nothing good was ever easy.

Dean looked a little unnerved but he quickly stood (albeit a little wobbly) and gestured for the others to do the same.

“Maybe they don’t know all that much about angels. It might give us an advantage. Come on, let’s get out of here.”

They stood shakily, each of them feeling exhausted and pained from being fed on for so long. It could have been over a week for all they knew.

They stumbled out of the barn, keeping a wary eye out for the djinns, but once they made it into the open, they realised there was something very, very wrong.

This was not the same barn they’d investigated earlier.

In fact, it didn’t even look like the same state.

Were they in Idaho?

A few metres ahead, a caribou wandered peacefully. It trudged through the deep snow coating the ground and its warm breath fogged up the air in front of it.

Sam swallowed thickly. “Does anyone remember getting out of their dream?”

“You don’t think this…” Dean trailed off uncertainly. The falling snow was cold against his fingers and he pulled his hands into his jacket to keep them warm.

Castiel scowled. “How can this be a dream if we’re all sharing it? Aren’t we supposed to endure separate dreams?”

Sam blinked and Dean nodded in agreement. “And if this was a dream, we wouldn’t be able to remember Lisa, Jess, Meg, Kali and Ben, right? Or they would have created a copy of them for us. I doubt this is one of the djinns hallucinations because I don’t think my deepest desire is to be stuck in Idaho in the middle of Winter without any of the girls.”

“So, we’ve established this is real,” stated Gabriel. “Next question: where are the djinn?”

“Out hunting for more prey?” Suggested Dean and Sam scrunched his nose up.

“With four alive beings in their hideout? I doubt it.”

“Well, what else do djinn do when they aren’t eating people?” Huffed Dean.

Castiel narrowed his eyes. “I’m not certain, but it would be wise to arm ourselves.”

The others raised their eyebrows at him. 

“Uh… we did, Cas,” said Dean. “Remember? The lamb’s blood and the silver blades.”

Castiel turned his pockets out to reveal their empty innards and the others patted themselves down in alarm to find themselves stripped of weapons, phones and money.

“Son of a bitch,” snapped Dean. The djinns had taken all of his belongings and he’d worked hard to win that money from snooker and pool games. “Great. The Impala has more silver blades and lamb’s blood. We’ll have to grab them.”

Sam gave his brother bitch face #35 ( _‘I can’t believe you just said that’_ ).

“Great plan, Dean. You point us in the direction of the Impala and we might get there by… oh, I don’t know… two months’ time.”

Dean blinked before cursing violently.

The caribou flicked his ear at them.

“Well… can’t you fly us back to the car?” Asked Sam as he turned to the angels and both Castiel and Gabriel winced as they assessed their graces.

“Uh… decidedly not. We barely have enough grace to keep warm,” admitted Gabriel apologetically. “Undoing your chains was a strain for me and Cas can’t even conjure enough grace to summon his blade.”

“So, we’re stuck out here in the middle of nowhere?” Grumped Dean and both angels lowered their heads guiltily.

“It’s not your fault, guys,” said Sam quietly and Dean nodded with a scowl.

“No, it’s those stupid djinns’. They need to go.”

“Apparently, they have,” murmured Sam. “We haven’t seen a trace of them yet.”

“I’m surprised they’re so careless about letting their food escape,” huffed Dean.

Sam glanced down at his own thin body, his ribs prominent under the tightly stretched flesh and his mind exhausted and weak.

“…Maybe they thought we weren’t gonna last much longer,” he whispered. Dean’s body wasn’t faring any better. His brother looked like he might break if you hugged him.

Dean fell silent and both angels frowned unhappily. Their vessels hadn’t deteriorated but their eyes were dull and it was clear both were vulnerable from their lack of power.

How long had they been trapped in that barn for?

“Well, we’re not dead yet,” grumbled Dean as he looked around for inspiration on where to go from there. The landscape was blanketed in thick white and the barn they’d been captive in was old and run-down; it barely had a roof so he didn’t hold out any hopes for there being any residents around these parts.

“…What now?” Asked Sam uncertainly and Dean’s mouth drew into a thin line as he realised the land was desolate.

“We can’t exactly fight the djinns without weapons or lamb’s blood. It would be suicide.”

“…So, what do we do?”

Dean sighed and looked over to the forest the caribou was ambling towards.

“We walk.”


	2. Day 2

They walked for eighteen hours until the cold and exhaustion forced Sam and Dean to stop. The snow clouds bathed the land in grey, hiding the sun from view until it disappeared below the horizon again, making way for the evening and by then, both Winchesters were aching from hunger and tiredness. Their fingers and toes were freezing to the point where they could no longer feel them and Dean’s teeth hadn’t stopped chattering for the past hour. Eventually, the brothers slumped to the icy floor, unable to walk another step.

“We need to sleep,” managed Sam, body protesting at sitting on the hardening snow. The temperature dropped during nightfall and they had no blankets and no energy to keep themselves warm.

Dean’s body looked like it was already beginning to shut down, which was worrying considering their weakened states. Gabriel and Castiel glanced at each other concernedly before settling beside the hunters.

Cas pulled Dean into his arms as Gabriel did the same for Sam and both hunters gasped softly at the heat that flooded into them.

“Your grace-” Sam began, trying to pull away from the archangel, but Gabriel frowned gently and tugged him closer.

“Can take care of this,” he interrupted, gaze pleading the hunter to give in. Humans didn’t last very long when they were exhausted, hungry and freezing. 

Dean glanced up at Castiel worriedly; the angel looked worn out as he pumped heat into Dean’s body, but the hunter knew there was no point in protesting. Cas wouldn’t let him suffer no matter how much energy was being drained from his grace; he’d learned that over the past few years of knowing the angel. Instead, he leaned into Cas and closed his eyes, uncaring that the angel was holding him. Castiel was warm and soft and that’s all he needed to fall asleep against the angel’s shoulder.

Castiel’s grace must have been low because it wasn’t long until he was dozing off too, head lolling backwards against a tree.

Sam and Gabriel watched their brothers for a few moments before Sam sighed quietly in defeat and carefully slid his arms around Gabriel until they were hugging each other. The archangel gently pushed Sam’s head onto his shoulder, encouraging him to sleep and the hunter drifted off peacefully.

Gabriel glanced between the sleeping trio and settled more comfortably against the tree he was propped against. He smoothed a protective hand down Sam’s back, unable to help himself. The young hunter shouldn’t look this thin (although the scruff framing his chin was oddly attractive). He cast his gaze to Dean and Cas and frowned because Dean looked incredibly fragile and Cas was borderline human and there was nothing he could do to help any of them.

His heart clenched at the thought and he held Sam a little tighter. They were his family; had been for a while now since his return from the dead. He hated seeing them hurt.

He cautiously let his head rest against Sam’s as he continued to pump heat into the human and as the snow fell silently, he watched over his little family for the remainder of the night, guarding them silently.

 

* * *

 

Sam awoke to something warm and soft between his arms. It was sort of wrapped around him even though he was leaning on it and a smile touched his lips because the position was oddly comfortable. Basking in his sleepy contentedness, Sam squeezed the object lightly and it stroked his back in a most pleasing manner, so he pressed his nose further into what he was beginning to realise was bare skin in order to show his approval. The object huffed out a laugh and Sam immediately knew that familiar sound.

He wasn’t curled up to Jessica like he’d been expecting, but he didn’t pull away with a flushed face and stuttered apologies; Gabriel was his closest friend besides Castiel and they had seen each other in hundreds of situations that most friendships probably wouldn’t survive and they knew far too many secrets about one another to feel awkward around each other over a bit of cuddling.

He remained right where he was; arms wrapped around Gabriel and body pressed into the angel’s side as he buried his face into Gabriel’s neck and let the archangel hold him and rub his back soothingly. Dean and Cas weren’t awake yet and he would enjoy this newfound contentedness for as long as he could.

“How you feeling, Moose?” Asked Gabriel quietly and he breathed out a chuckle when the hunter made a soft noise and cuddled further into him.

Grace pulsing happily, Gabriel tugged him tighter to his body and let his head rest against the human’s.

“Yeah, you’re pretty comfy too.”

Sam smiled into his neck and Gabriel’s grace pulsed again. He was glad Sam couldn’t feel the icy air anymore; at least he knew he’d been successful in warming the human.

There was a loud, groaning rumble from the vicinity of Sam’s stomach and Gabriel quirked a grin.

“Your stomach’s speaking to us,” he murmured and Sam snorted quietly but didn’t move away. Gabriel gently rasped his knuckles over the hunter’s spine. “Want me to have a search for some fruit?” He asked, frustrated by the fact he didn’t have the power to snap up any food for the human.

Sam shook his head and slipped his arms more securely around the archangel.

“Wait for Dean and Cas to wake up,” he whispered. “I have a feeling Cas might need something to eat too.”

Gabriel nodded and leaned his head against the hunter’s once more. He rather liked this affectionate version of Sam; Kali wasn’t this cuddly in the morning and Gabriel had to admit Sam was making his grace shine. 

“How’s your grace?” Yawned Sam. “Keeping me warm hasn’t drained all your power, has it?”

Gabriel shook his head. “Not all of it but I’m pretty low.”

Sam made a sound of guilty apology but the archangel squeezed him lightly.

“I’d rather keep you alive than charge my grace,” he assured and Sam smiled hesitantly and relaxed into the angel again.

“You think Cas’ll be alright?” He asked worriedly and the corners of Gabriel’s mouth turned downwards as he cast his gaze over to the seraph and hunter leaning against each other a couple of feet away.

“Cas is… stronger than we often give him credit for,” murmured Gabriel. “His grace might be nearly non-existent, but he’ll manage. He always does.” He glanced down at the younger Winchester. “It’s you and Dean I’m most worried about.” Those ribs were very prominent.

Sam shrugged. “We can cope with a bit of dirt and hunger.” They were all rather filthy from being captive in that rotting barn for so long. “The permanent exhaustion is a little frustrating, but we’ll recover eventually.” That permanent exhaustion was probably from the amount of blood loss they’d suffered from being fed on for who-knows-how-long by a couple of vicious djinns. Sam was quite correct though; their weariness would lessen once their bone marrow managed to replenish their blood cells.

Gabriel only wished he could help.

He couldn’t even manifest his wings.

“I know you will,” he mumbled instead. “You always do.”

Sam smiled and closed his eyes again.

 

* * *

 

Dean was startled awake by the sound of his own stomach shouting at him. His jerk into the conscious world jostled Castiel enough to wake him too and the pair stared at each other for one confused moment ( _‘You’re not Lisa.’ ‘Meg, please stop possessing strangers in hopes of kinky intercourse.’_ ) before Dean’s stomach yelled at them both again and their brains finally caught up. Dean let his head fall against Castiel’s shoulder with a quiet groan and Castiel smoothed a soothing hand down his back.

The seraph was still shoving heat into his body despite having a practically depleted grace and Dean wanted to scream in frustration because Cas shouldn’t have to sleep; he shouldn’t have to suffer through exhaustion and hunger and all those other human irritations. 

“I can search for food if you would like me to?” Asked Cas worriedly as he let his gaze trail over Dean’s body. The hunter’s mouth drew into a thin line because despite everything Cas was suffering right now, he was still more interested in Dean’s welfare and how did someone so kind deserve so much awful luck?

Meeting him or Sam clearly put a curse on people. Or at least a target on their backs for powerful monsters.

“We’ll all go,” huffed Dean after a moment. “Sam’s gonna need food too.” He purposefully didn’t mention how he’d just heard Cas’ stomach rumble quietly a few seconds ago. “Don’t know what we’re gonna find in the middle of Winter though,” he grumbled.

“Lots of fruits ripen through the Winter,” commented Cas and Dean closed his eyes as he let the comforting gravelly tone of the angel’s voice wash over him. It was oddly relaxing.

“Well, just... wait for a sec,” Dean murmured. “Let me wake up properly.” In truthness, he was enjoying Castiel’s warmth and he didn’t want to face the icy air just yet.

Castiel seemed to understand because he slipped a subtle arm around Dean’s waist and for once, the hunter didn’t complain about ‘chick flick moments’. In fact, he leaned further into the angel, prompting Cas to slide his other arm around the hunter with an amused smile.

Dean cracked an eye open to take in the angel’s smirking visage and he pulled a face and pressed his nose into Cas’ neck so he wouldn’t have to see the angel’s judging smirk.

“Shut up, man,” he huffed and he knew Cas’ smile had just morphed into a grin. He could even hear Sam and Gabriel whispering and giggling about him a couple of feet away.

They were all teenage girls who needed to go paint their nails or something so he could have some peace.

Well, all except Cas who needed to stay right where he was as Dean’s pillow.

It was quiet for all of ten seconds and as Dean was beginning to smile, Gabriel’s grating voice shattered the blessed silence.

“Aww… isn’t that precious? Someone snap a picture of cuddly Dean and his trench-coated teddy bear.”

“I’ll snap a picture of you, you… cuddly…” He trailed of with a frown; he’d never been good at comebacks and this latest failed attempt only succeeded in making Gabriel snicker and Cas’ grin widen.

They fell into a comfortable silence (even if Dean was still trying to think of a good comeback) and it was only when Sam’s stomach made a sound of protest did Castiel sigh.

“We need to find some food.”

“Are there no burger trees out here?” Grumbled Dean petulantly and Gabriel snorted. 

“If I had enough grace, I’d make you one, Dean-o. Sadly, I don’t so it’s fruit and veg I’m afraid.”

Dean scowled unhappily and shoved his face further into Castiel’s neck. He’d given up preserving his macho image; Cas was squishy and comfortable and they’d been through too much together to not use each other as a pillow at least once in their lives.

“Come on, Dean,” came Sam’s voice. “Get up. We need food and I’m sure Cas’ll let you snuggle him again tonight.”

“Shut up, bitch.”

“Jerk.”

“Sam’s quite correct,” murmured Castiel softly. “We need to eat.” His lips curled up in amusement. “And of course I’ll let you ‘snuggle’ me tonight.”

Great. Now Cas was teasing him.

Dean heaved himself to his feet with a grumble and a scowl, helping the angel up as he did so.

“Gonna bury you all under six feet of snow when you sleep,” he huffed before begrudgingly following the others on their journey for fruit.

Their amusement soon died down however when the icy air whipped at their skin and Dean’s face fell at the sight of Castiel beginning to shiver; he’d used too much energy trying to sustain Dean’s warmth and now he couldn’t sustain his own.

It was half an hour before they found any form of food and at first, they stumbled across a small bush littered with red currants. They weren’t exactly filling, but it was enough to diminish Sam, Dean and Cas’ hunger pains. Whilst they ate, Gabriel hunted around for something a little more substantial. A few minutes later, he spotted a cluster of clementine and tangerine trees; their fruits ripe and juicy and he called his friends over excitedly.

Once satisfied, they washed their sticky hands in the cold snow and continued their journey in what they hoped was the direction of home.

After watching Cas’ body struggle to acclimatise to the cold for a few more minutes, Dean carefully tugged the angel into his side and wrapped an arm around him as they walked, hoping that sharing body heat might help the angel, if only a little. Castiel glanced over to him gratefully and nobody teased Dean as they marched through the snow.

The pine trees and yews towered high above them and they had to navigate through bushes and vines and smaller vegetation as they wandered through the huge forest. The thick snow blanketed everything in sight, deadening any sounds and making their surroundings eerily silent. The odd bird chirped as they fluttered from branch to branch, but the cold made their feathers ruffle as they retreated hastily into their warm nests with their families. A raccoon ventured down a tree trunk and placed a curious paw in the snow before chittering in protest and racing back up into the branches.

The forest was quite dark even though the sun was already high in the sky; it was hidden by grey snow clouds and the ground was bathed in shadows with only a couple of sun patches shining over it, making the snow glisten like one of those glittery Christmas cards that make the sender’s hands sparkle.

They walked for two hours, making mindless small talk before Sam finally turned to Gabriel.

“Tell us a story,” he said and the archangel lifted a surprise eyebrow.

“Um… about what exactly? Jack and the Beanstalk?”

Sam shrugged. “Anything. Your time in Heaven. Your days as a Trickster. Life with the Pagans. Just… talk. We’re going to be walking for a long time and it’s going to drag if we shuffle on in silence.”

“…Are you sure you want to hear about my life, though? It’s almost as tragic as yours,” Gabriel commented, pulling a face and Sam rolled his eyes.

“It’s either that or I ask Dean to sing.”

“Did I ever tell you about the prank I pulled on a racist, sexist, homophobic politician in Washington?”

Sam smirked as Dean scowled. 

“What’s wrong with my singing?”

Everyone ignored him.

“Anyway, I once had the displeasure of meeting this guy in nineteen-eighty-something and the man had no redeeming qualities whatsoever. You know how Kali and I have our on-and-off phases that have lasted over a good few centuries? Well, we were on one of our ‘off’ phases and since we’re in a pretty open relationship anyway and at that point, I thought we were breaking it off completely, I decided to go to a bar and do the typically human thing of finding someone to hook up with. I saw this guy on his own at the bar with no one around him and no wedding ring on his finger. He was easy on the eyes and smartly dressed so I sat beside him and struck up a conversation. 

“As soon as he opened his mouth, bad vibes started wafting from him and nearly every sentence was a racial slur. Then I found out he was a politician; not even a very important one, but he had a thing against women, saying they weren’t fit to run the country and that they should be at home looking after the children and cleaning the house. I started making excuses about how I needed to leave but the guy just kept running his mouth so I was forced to sit there awkwardly and listen to this idiot ramble on and on. 

“The worst part was when the conversation died and I managed to escape, another guy walked up to him, obviously thinking he’s this charismatic, gorgeous specimen and offered to buy him a drink as a friendly gesture. This politician suddenly loses it. Stands up and starts yelling degrading, homophobic insults at him and telling him _‘queers are abominations who make the world a horrible place’_. He even threatened to call the cops on the poor guy because… y’know… eighties.”

“Sounds like an ass,” commented Sam before lifting an eyebrow. “What did you do to him?”

A spark of mischief twinkled behind Gabriel’s eyes. “Got him fired from his job and made it so the only person who would hire him was a black, twenty-five-year-old lesbian with a degree in law. He also got roses every Friday from his not-so-secret admirer ‘Jamal’ from reception. He was originally from the Caribbean and he was a bisexual forty-three-year-old man.”

Sam snorted. “Bet he was a happy guy after that.”

Gabriel tilted his head. “…Actually, they ran away to Hawaii together seven years later and adopted two little girls.”

Sam turned to the angel in surprise. “Wait, one of your pranks actually… backfired?”

Gabriel shrugged. “I’m not sure I consider it as a ‘backfire’. I mean… he learned his lesson and it turned out kinda nice for him… so…”

Dean huffed out an amused laugh as Sam shook his head.

“Way to go, Gabe,” snorted Dean and the archangel shot him a sheepish grin.

“Got any more stories?” Sam asked and Gabriel smiled in amusement at the younger Winchester’s insatiable curiousness. 

“Depends what you wanna hear, Samsquatch.”

Sam pulled a face at the nickname but had given up on correcting him years ago. Besides, Gabriel wouldn’t be Gabriel without the silly nicknames.

“You should tell him about that time you were teaching me to fly,” muttered Castiel drily and Gabriel’s eyes widened before he whirled on his little brother and waggled his finger at his face.

“You can shut up.”

The seraph smirked smugly as Sam and Dean exchanged a surprised glance.

“What happened?” Asked Sam and Gabriel’s face flushed pink.

“Nothing. Nothing happened and we don’t need to talk about it. Let’s move on, shall we?”

“Gabriel crash landed into an erupting volcano and got trapped in solidified lava for six hours before Lucifer and Michael had to rescue him… after they’d finished laughing, of course.”

Sam and Dean grinned at the archangel as Gabriel glared accusingly at his brother.

“This is one we have to hear,” snorted Dean and the archangel pouted before glaring at his little brother.

“You might as well tell them. You’ve already brutally mangled my dignity.”

Castiel rolled his eyes but nodded anyway and launched into the story whilst Gabriel huffed and pouted at every laugh or smirk from the Winchesters.

The day passed quickly with them exchanging stories and once night fell and it grew too dark to see their own feet, they settled against a couple of trees and pulled a face at the snow beginning to sprinkle over the Earth once more.

Despite the earlier teasing, Gabriel tugged Sam into his arms again and warmed the hunter with his drained grace. Sam smiled gratefully at him before leaning his head against his shoulder and closing his eyes. Gabriel was a good friend even though he pretended to be a smug jerk at times and that’s why Sam and Dean enjoyed him joining their hunts; they always knew Gabriel had their backs despite his pranks and fiery remarks.

Dean was a little more hesitant in joining Castiel, not because he hadn’t enjoyed being warmed by him the previous night, but because he knew Castiel didn’t have enough grace to spare tonight and the angel would still try and exhaust himself to help Dean. 

When he saw Castiel shudder against an icy breeze, Dean made his mind up. He settled beside the angel and slipped his arms around him, swapping their positions from the previous night. Castiel immediately snuggled into him and threw his arms around the human with an appreciative smile, making Dean chuckle.

Behind him, he heard Sam and Gabriel snickering and cooing over them so he offered them a middle finger and held the seraph tighter before drifting off to unconsciousness.

 

* * *

 

Sam was dragged out of sleep by someone shaking him and hissing his name urgently.

“Sam. Sam!” The voice breathed in panic and the younger Winchester blinked awake with a protesting groan. It was still pitch black and he could barely see a metre ahead of him.

“Sshhh!” Hissed the annoying voice again, slapping a hand over his mouth and Sam scowled and shoved the hand away as he pulled away from Gabriel’s shoulder to glare at the angel.

Gabriel’s eyes were wide and anxious and Sam realised the archangel’s fingers were digging into his skin from their tight, nervous grip on him. Immediately, Sam was on alert because Gabriel looking this panicked couldn’t be a good thing.

“Wake Dean and Cas,” whispered Gabriel worriedly, his eyes focused on a spot in the distance Sam couldn’t see.

“Is it the djinns?” Sam asked quietly in alarm, but Gabriel shook his head.

“Wake them,” he said again pleadingly and Sam scrambled across the floor to shake his brother and Castiel awake. Dean awoke with a grumble and Sam pressed a finger to his lips with a desperate look, which Dean’s eyes widened at and he shot upright with a questioning glance.

Sam shrugged helplessly and gestured to Gabriel, who was still staring at that same spot with an expression of panic.

Dean frowned in confusion and peered into the darkness, wondering what had Gabriel so spooked.

Then they heard the howl.

Nothing like a werewolf’s cry but still so familiar. It was one thing to hear that sound on nature programmes from the safety of a warm, well-lit, underground bunker with the girls and Ben scattered around them; to hear it in a dark, icy forest where they were unarmed and the angels graceless was something entirely different and altogether more terrifying.

There was a pack of timber wolves out there and Sam, Dean, Cas and Gabe were sitting ducks.

“Run,” mouthed Gabriel urgently, eyes flitting between the few wolves he could see staring back at him and his friends staring at him in horror. “Run!” He hissed again when they didn’t move.

One of the wolves, the pack leader, sniffed the air curiously before trotting towards Team Free Will and Gabriel sprung to his feet, prompting the others to follow.

The wolf paused, sniffed again, then began growling warningly as its pack started forwards, clearly hungry.

The pack suddenly broke out into a sprint and Gabriel gasped and raced towards his friends, shoving them forwards until they got the message and pushed themselves into a hard run through the thick snow.

The wolves were far quicker than them and they gained distance on the four in no time at all, jaws gaping and orange eyes glowing eerily under the dim moonlight.

In thirty seconds, the pack leader was two feet away from yanking Castiel to the ground by his coat’s belt and Gabriel did the only thing he could think of.

He ploughed into all three of his friends and spread his wings.

They crash landed in an open meadow surrounding a large lake and the impact with the ground bruised their ribs and limbs and made them groan in pain.

Castiel was the first to heave himself off the ground and he checked the Winchester brothers first to ensure there were no broken bones before looking around for his own brother.

He gasped sharply at the sight of Gabriel slumped over the ground, tears trickling down his cheeks from agony and body twisted unnaturally.

“Gabriel!” Breathed Cas, horrified as he stumbled over; balance off from the harsh landing.

He gently straightened his brother’s body out as Dean and Sam scrambled towards them, hearts racing at the archangel’s fragile appearance.

Gabriel cried out as Castiel tried to roll him onto his back and the seraph froze when his brother’s arms shot out to clamp onto his shoulders.

“My wings are broken,” whimpered Gabriel, eyes clenched shut in anguish and Castiel immediately knew he’d strained his already-dwindling grace by rescuing them. The seraph cursed and clenched his fist in frustration at his own inability to even soothe his brother’s pain. They were both practically human now and Gabriel was suffering.

Sam and Dean looked simultaneously terrified and hopelessly lost and Castiel glanced at them helplessly.

“He drained his grace by saving us but pushed himself too hard and used energy he didn’t have. Now his wings are broken from the strain and there’s nothing I can do to help him.”

Sam’s eyes rounded. “There must be something we can do; he’s being tortured!”

Gabriel sucked in a pained breath and if anything, that was a confirmation that the archangel was now practically human.

“The pain will fade,” he wheezed. “But I don’t know how long it’ll…” He trailed off as all his muscles clenched and his back arched off the floor as a sharp, excruciating pain shot down his spine. More tears leaked through closed eyes and he released a low whine.

Sam was moving before his brain could register it and he kneeled behind Gabriel and smoothly pulled the archangel upright, allowing him to lean into his warm body instead of the hard, cold snow.

At first, Gabriel cried out, but then he realised that Sam’s pliant body was warming his back and cushioning the pain and he breathed out a shaky sigh as he forced himself to relax. 

Sam instinctively wound his arms around Gabriel’s middle as if protecting him and Gabriel’s newly-started heart fluttered in a way that made the angel worry his vessel couldn’t cope with him being human.

“…Thanks,” murmured Gabriel softly, placing a grateful hand over the one Sam was resting on his stomach and Sam gently leaned his head against the back of Gabriel’s with a relieved sigh. His breath was warm against the archangel’s neck and Gabriel found himself leaning further into the hunter.

Dean and Castiel watched the display in surprise. They hadn’t expected Sam to jump into action like that, nor had they expected the pair to be so… tender with each other. They were being almost intimate with one another without even noticing and both Castiel and Dean weren’t sure whether they should look away or not.

Not wanting to disturb the oddly private moment, Dean turned to Castiel.

“Where are we?” He asked quietly. The snow wasn’t as thick here but there was still a good couple of inches blanketing the meadow and the edges of the lake.

“…It… looks like Yellowstone,” Castiel murmured slowly, taking a long, slow look around. “Gabriel appears to have carried us further towards our endpoint.”

Dean sneaked a glance at the pained archangel and frowned lightly. Gabriel was family even if he was the most annoying angel Dean had ever met; he hated seeing the trickster hurt.

“Well, he can’t move and we’re all pretty tired. Let’s bunk down for the night and see how things look in the morning,” huffed Dean unhappily. “Maybe we’ll be able to catch a bus or something from the tourist end of the park.”

Castiel nodded and hovered awkwardly for a few moments before Dean rolled his eyes and lay down, patting the ground beside him for Cas to join him. The angel did so hesitantly and Dean took his jacket off and lay it out as a pillow to protect their faces from the cold ground. Body temperature suddenly plummeting, he rolled over and dragged Castiel into his chest, closing his eyes at the newfound warmth.

Cas tensed at first but quickly relaxed and surprised Dean by taking his trench coat off and laying it over them both like a blanket, before rolling over until he could slide his arms around Dean and rest his head on top of the hunter’s.

The older Winchester rolled his eyes at the affectionate gesture but said nothing as he slipped his own arms around the angel. 

What? He was cold.

…And maybe he kind of liked Cas holding him; it felt… safe. He always felt safe when he was around Cas, no matter what monster they were facing.

He loved Lisa and Ben very much and he was always excited to be with them or around them, talking and teasing, but Cas? Cas’ presence made him… content. They didn’t even need to talk, just knowing the angel was there made him relax; when Cas was around, everything was going to be alright.

Feeling warmer now beside Cas, Dean felt himself let go of consciousness.


	3. Day 3

Gabriel blinked awake sleepily. His back ached and throbbed dully but he felt warmer than he should have considering there were a good few inches of snow surrounding him, and the ground was strangely soft.

After a few moments, he realised he was lying on Sam; the hunter’s arms wrapped around him protectively. He smiled despite himself and closed his eyes once more, barely concerned with the fact he now needed to sleep; Sam was a fantastic pillow and if the human was offering himself up as a bed, Gabriel wasn’t about to complain.

Sam made a soft noise in his sleep and gently nuzzled Gabriel’s hair and the archangel’s chest erupted in butterflies. It was an odd feeling and it made Gabriel frown briefly before the hunter settled back down. Gabriel listened to his quiet breaths for a few moments, concentrating on the rise and fall of his chest and the languid movement was enough to make him relax again. He unthinkingly slipped his hand over the one Sam had splayed across his stomach and their fingers laced for a couple of minutes before Gabriel scowled at his own behaviour and pulled away. He didn’t like the cool feeling that swept over his palm afterwards.

Sam yawned and stretched beneath the angel and Gabriel stilled, unwilling to let the hunter know of his unusual thoughts. Sam squeezed his middle unconsciously as he grew more aware of his surroundings and Gabriel raised an eyebrow as his own heart fluttered.

“How’re you feeling?” Sam slurred quietly, hot breath tickling the back of the archangel’s neck and Gabriel couldn’t help but lean further into him.

“Sore, but I’ll live,” he whispered and Sam’s thumb rubbed soothing circles over his stomach.

…It seemed he wasn’t the only one being affected by strange thoughts.

He wasn’t inclined to stop the human.

“I wish I knew how to help,” breathed Sam beside his ear and Gabriel swallowed drily. He nearly pressed his nose into the hunter’s jaw.

“You’re helping,” he murmured back. Sam nuzzled his hair again and Gabriel turned slightly to see the human’s face as he slowly placed his hand over Sam’s once more.

The angle was awkward and neither could see each other, but Gabriel made no attempt to move away from Sam’s arms and if anything, the hunter tightened his grip slightly.

Being so close to Sam felt right and the thought disturbed Gabriel because not once had his subconscious reminded him of Kali since waking up.

He’d been too focused on Sam.

“Can you walk?” Sam asked after a few moments and Gabriel swore his throat sounded dry and slightly choked.

Instead of replying, the archangel carefully rolled off Sam, shivering as the cold snow penetrated his jeans. He tried to climb to his feet but a sharp pain jolted up his spine and he stumbled to his knees again with a harsh breath of agony. Sam was immediately on him, one hand on his back and the other on his chest as he hovered beside him, brows pinched into a concerned frown.

“Don’t hurt yourself,” murmured Sam and Gabriel scowled in frustration and gently pushed Sam away as he attempted to struggle to his feet once more.

His back throbbed and he stumbled again with a pained curse, but Sam was there to catch him and the archangel sighed in defeat and sagged into the human’s arms, closing his eyes in irritation.

Sam pulled him into his chest and held him securely for a few moments as Gabriel acclimatised to the new position and when the hunter carefully began to rub at the horrid ache just underneath his shoulder blades, he released a shaky breath of relief and leaned into Sam.

“What use am I if I can’t even walk?” Grumbled Gabriel even though his heart was constricting with guilt. Maybe he should stay here so the others could walk on and get home; they could always come back for him or he could wait until his grace had gained a little more juice, right?

Sam scowled. “You saved our lives last night. That’s what ‘use’ you are.” The hunter held him a little tighter. “You’re not an object to be used, Gabe.”

“I’m going to slow you down,” Gabriel whispered, frustrated. “Maybe I should stay here-”

“No,” Sam said firmly. “We’re not leaving you. I’ll carry you if I have to, but we’re not leaving you.”

Gabriel frowned. “You can’t carry me, Sam. You need to look after yourself.”

Sam rested his chin on the smaller man’s head. “I’m not leaving you.”

Gabriel was quiet for a few minutes. He knew the Winchesters were stubborn and having the conversation with Dean or Castiel would probably result in the same conclusion. They wouldn’t leave him behind, no matter how weak they were. It would have been endearing had the situation not been so concerning. 

With a small sigh, Gabriel slid his arms around Sam, resting his weight against the human. His back hurt but the hunter’s soothing rubs were diminishing the pain and he knew in that moment he wasn’t going to win this argument. He said nothing more and Sam knew he’d won.

They stood holding each other for a few more minutes, neither wanting to pull away from the warm embrace as they waited for Castiel and Dean to wake.

 

* * *

 

Castiel snuggled closer to the warmth between his arms. The icy air around him was wreaking havoc with his newly human body but the thing between his arms was warm and solid and smelled like home.

He pressed his nose into what he was beginning to realise was a soft nest of hair and when a pair of strong arms tightened around him, his lips quirked upwards in approval.

He cracked an eye open to find Dean and himself wrapped around one another and instead of pulling away with an awkward grimace and an averted gaze, he remained right where he was. He had the sudden urge to stay close to Dean, to hold him and protect him from the icy elements. He’d never had such an intense desire to be close to the hunter.

Dean blinked awake a few moments later and he slowly glanced up at Castiel. Instead of scrambling away like Castiel thought he would, the hunter offered him a small smile and they gazed at each other for a little while, forgetting about their surroundings.

“How’re you feeling?” Whispered Dean quietly and Castiel found himself focusing on the calloused thumb smoothing circles into his hip.

“My grace is still drained,” he murmured. “But I’m unharmed, which is more than I can say for my brother.”

Dean’s mouth turned downwards unhappily. “Will he heal?”

“In time,” mumbled Castiel. “I can’t imagine the agony he’s experiencing.” His gaze flicked over to where his brother should have been lying only for it to land on Sam and Gabriel’s tender embrace. His eyes widened and his lips parted in surprise and Dean turned slightly to see what had the angel so shocked. He, too, froze at the sight of Sam and Gabriel holding each other, Sam stroking the archangel’s back and neither of them speaking.

Dean quickly looked away with rosy cheeks and Castiel soon followed. Their brothers may not have noticed their intimate position but Castiel and Dean didn’t want to intrude on their moment so they remained where they were for a little longer, minds reeling with questions.

Dean suddenly slid his hand off Castiel’s hip with a confused frown and Cas realised the human hadn’t noticed what his thumb had been up to.

“You said we’re in Yellowstone?” Asked Dean after a few seconds and Castiel nodded.

“Maybe we’ll be able to find a bus to catch a ride on. If we’re lucky, we’ll be close to a stop,” Dean continued. He shivered. “We really need to find somewhere warm.”

Castiel blinked and glanced at the trench coat draped over them. It was heaped with snow and ice. He attempted to brush some off but grimaced when the coat felt damp and frosty beneath his frozen fingers.

“We should probably start walking,” murmured Dean, brows drawing downwards at Castiel’s blue fingers. He cleared his throat loudly to let their brothers know they were awake and when they next turned to Sam and Gabriel, the pair were watching them, separated from their embrace. Sam had placed a supportive hand on Gabriel’s back to stop the archangel from stumbling.

Dean and Castiel slowly climbed to their feet and Castiel shook his coat out as Dean pulled a face and brushed the snow off his own jacket.

“We need to start walking,” Dean announced. “Find a bus or something.” He rubbed his hands together in an attempt to generate heat and didn’t miss the concerned glance Sam shot Gabriel.

They set off to the song of their rumbling stomachs and within seconds, Gabriel was almost on the floor again, doubled over and breaths heavy with pain. Castiel reached out helplessly, praying for his grace to miraculously return, but Sam smoothly swooped down and picked the archangel up bridal-style.

Gabriel made a sound of protest but with one raised eyebrow from Sam, he fell silent and let himself be carried, leaving Castiel and Dean to share stunned glances.

“You can’t carry me around Yellowstone until we find a bus,” huffed Gabriel quietly and Sam sent him an unimpressed stare.

“Watch me.”

Gabriel clamped his mouth shut.

They tramped through meadows of snow and when they came to a large lake of ice, they picked a direction to walk around it. They ignored their aching stomachs, too determined to find a mode of transport to really care about their hunger and even when the falling snow began to pick up speed, they marched forwards.

After five hours, they spotted a campsite.

Hearts lifting and spirits brightening, they headed towards the small campsite and as they neared the area, a few holiday-makers in caravans glanced up at them curiously, some murmuring questions to each other or pointing at them in confusion. They probably looked ridiculous stumbling through the blizzard, all of them thin and filthy and looking as though they should probably be dead.

They staggered into the campsite and one man popped his head out of his caravan curiously.

Dean stared at him pleadingly, body wracked with shivers and the man blinked before throwing his door open in invitation.

The group sighed in relief and crawled up the steps into the caravan, Sam placing Gabriel on one of the large couches as his arms threatened to give out from holding the angel’s weight for so long.

Dean turned to the caravan owner and straightened when he realised the man had a family.

They were fairly young; the parents no more than thirty and the children probably around six and four. They appeared to be of Islamic faith if the hijabs the wife and daughter were sporting were anything to go by and they watched their guests silently, curiously as Sam checked Gabriel over.

A Siamese kitten suddenly leapt onto the floor and sniffed at Castiel’s feet.

Dean sneezed and glanced back up to the family apologetically.

“Thank you,” he said sincerely and the father; a man with deep brown eyes and short black hair with designer stubble tilted his head slightly and nodded. The mother held her children a little closer.

The father glanced over to Gabriel in question and Dean held back another sneeze as Sam finally moved away from the angel.

“He can’t walk,” offered Dean. “His back is damaged.”

“We’ve been stranded in the snow for days,” Sam added, explaining why they all appeared filthy and emaciated. “We’re lost.”

“We were drugged,” said Dean, thinking it the best way to describe how the djinns had kidnapped them and held them captive for possibly weeks.

The father’s brows pinched together and he shook his head silently before glancing to his wife, who also shook her head helplessly.

The family turned back to the group and Dean suddenly realised none of them could speak English. He sagged a little and glanced over to Sam. Sam frowned and stared back uselessly.

“آپ کی مہمان نوازی کے لئے شکریہ” Castiel said carefully, tongue handling the foreign syllables effortlessly. He sounded like a native speaker of whatever language he’d just attempted.

The family suddenly perked up, faces lighting into smiles as they recognised the unusual sounds Sam and Dean couldn’t begin to work out.

Castiel quirked his lips in amusement as the father nodded eagerly.

“آپ کا بہت استقبال کر رہے ہیں” he said excitedly and Sam and Dean might as well have been listening to Klingon. They probably would have understood more.

“آپ برفانی طوفان میں کیوں سفر کرتے ہیں؟” The mother asked with a worried frown and Sam and Dean gave up completely and turned to Gabriel, who smiled at their lost expressions.

“She’s asking why we were out in the snow,” he whispered and Dean cocked an eyebrow.

“You can understand them, too?” 

Gabriel rolled his eyes. “Perks of being an angel, moron.”

Dean snapped his mouth shut and glanced at his feet sheepishly. Sometimes he forgot Castiel and Gabriel were all-powerful supernatural creatures that could master any talent with a single thought rather than just a dorky guy who liked bees and an annoying prankster who liked chocolate.

“میں یقین کرتا ہوں کہ ہم منشیات کا شکار تھے. اغوا. کون سے، ہم اس بات کا یقین نہیں کر رہے ہیں. ہم کھو گئے ہیں. کیا آپ کو معلوم ہے کہ قریب ترین بس سٹاپ کہاں ہے؟” Castiel continued and Gabriel watched the family contemplate the question as he translated his brother’s words. 

_“I believe we were drugged. Kidnapped. By who, we aren't sure. We're lost. Do you happen to know where the nearest bus stop is?”_ He translated quietly as the father nodded.

“یہاں سے چند میل. اگر آپ چاہیں تو میں آپ کو لے جا سکتا ہوں؟”

“He says it’s a few miles from here,” Gabriel murmured. “He’s willing to take us.”

“Really?” Asked Dean in surprise. “That would be great.” Their luck wasn’t usually this good.

“شکریہ یہ بہت تعریف کی جائے گی.” Castiel smiled and the father grinned and turned to his wife to speak softly with her. The seraph turned his attention to the kitten nudging his ankle and when he started fussing over her and speaking to her in Urdu, both Sam and Dean knew he’d charmed himself into the family’s hearts. 

As the father left the caravan to unhook the Land Rover, the mother and children cooed over Castiel and began asking him a million and one questions, eyes bright as he played gently with their kitten. Castiel smiled patiently and answered their queries with amusement, leaving Sam, Dean and Gabriel to watch on quietly.

Dean’s chest felt light and warm as he watched his friend fondly and he only realised he was wearing a glazed smile when Sam nudged him with a puzzled glance. Dean shook his head and wondered why he’d suddenly zoned out, but quickly dismissed the thought when Sam spoke up.

“So, we find a bus and then what? It’ll only take us as far as the edge of the park and then we’ll be on our own again.”

“We’ll get another bus,” shrugged Dean and Sam rolled his eyes. 

“With what money?”

Dean paused. He hadn’t thought of that.

Gabriel blinked in surprise and suddenly yanked on Sam’s sleeve before pointing over to Castiel, where the mother was pushing fifty dollars into his hand. Castiel looked a little bewildered and the others stared at the scene in shock.

Their luck didn’t go like this. Nobody helped them out when they needed it.

The father soon appeared and gestured for them to come outside, so Sam swept Gabriel into his arms once more as Castiel bid the family farewell and stroked the kitten’s haunches until it mewled sadly at him and pawed at his shoe.

They left the caravan but not before the son pulled on Dean’s jeans and offered him a few chocolate bars with a proud smile.

Dean took them cautiously, still unable to believe their luck and smiled hesitantly at the child. He didn’t even know any of their names.

The father ushered them into the Land Rover, watching Gabriel with pity before starting the car and striking up a conversation with Castiel, most likely about Gabriel’s predicament.

Gabriel snatched one of the chocolate bars from Dean’s hand with a predatory grin and practically inhaled it, barely stripping it from the wrapper. Sam eyed him in disgust but couldn’t resist taking a Dairy Milk bar when Dean rolled his eyes and shared the rest around the car.

After devouring his second chocolate bar, Gabriel seemed to straighten, the pain dancing behind his eyes suddenly fading and both Sam and Dean glanced at him curiously but he shook his head in a way that said _‘I’ll explain later’_.

The kind father took the group all the way to the stop, dropping them off right next to the bus preparing to leave. 

They thanked him wholeheartedly and he smiled and waved at them before hopping back into his car and starting the journey back to his family. 

Sam made to pick Gabriel up again but the archangel put a hand up and took a few hesitant steps and once he realised he wasn’t shaking or in too much agony, he grinned, winked at the stunned trio and sauntered towards the bus, where he crept behind the ticket master without her noticing.

The trio followed, surprised by the carelessness of the woman checking tickets and considered themselves lucky that they at least wouldn’t have to pay for a ticket on this journey. They lumped into the back of the bus and turned to Gabriel for an explanation.

“The angel part of me might not be any use at the moment, but the Pagan side of me really appreciated that chocolate,” smirked Gabriel, wiggling his eyebrows. “Angel magic isn’t the only magic that can heal.”

Castiel looked pleased that his brother wasn’t suffering quite so horrifically and he nodded, satisfied before turning to face the front of the bus as Dean rolled his eyes (even though he was thankful for his friend’s renewed health) and whirled around as well.

Sam couldn’t stop smiling; trust Gabriel to have a trick to get out of pain even when he was graceless.

The archangel suddenly snuggled into his side, resting his head on Sam’s shoulder as he closed his eyes and Sam’s chest burst with butterflies, heart racing. He was confused by his body’s reaction to the simple gesture and glanced down at Gabriel, who looked up with a contented smile.

“Now, if you don’t mind, it’s warm on here and I’ve finally got some relief from my excruciating agony and you have a very comfy shoulder.” His golden eyes twinkled playfully and for a moment, Sam’s breath caught in his throat. Automatically, he threw his arm around Gabriel’s shoulders and the archangel paused in surprise but instantly relaxed and closed his eyes once more.

The group settled down, grateful for the heaters obnoxiously blasting hot air into the bus. For two hours, they were happy and comfortable.

 

* * *

 

“We could get a bus to the nearest train station,” said Sam once they stepped off the tour bus. “We might have to walk a bit first but there should be public buses coming through here for tourists.”

Dean nodded before glancing over to the information cabin.

“Do you think they’ll have a phone in there?”

“Uhh… yes…?”

Dean stared at his brother, unimpressed.

“The girls? They have no idea where we are and we have no idea how long we’ve been gone for. Might be polite to call them.”

“Shit,” Sam cursed with wide eyes and the group bustled into the cabin and crowded around one of the booths.

“Call the bunker. Lisa will probably be home by now,” said Sam, checking his watch. Ben would be home from school either way.

Dean nodded, inserted the money Cas presented to him and dialled the number for the bunker.

It rang.

And rang.

And rang.

Frowning, Sam turned to his brother. “Cell?”

Dean tried Lisa’s personal phone but scowled when there was no ring tone, but rather three beeps varying in pitch.

_**“We’re sorry, the number you have reached has been disconnected or is no longer in service. If you feel you have received this recording in error, please check the number and try calling again.”** _

Dean stared at the phone in confusion and tried dialling the number once more, only to be greeted with the same message. He turned to his brother helplessly.

“…Let me try Jess’,” said Sam and after inserting more money into the phone, he dialled his girlfriend’s phone.

_**“We’re sorry, the number you have reached has been disconnected or is no longer in service. If you feel you have received this recording in error, please check the number and try calling again.”** _

Sam gazed blankly at the phone before turning to his friends and brother, a feeling of wrongness crawling down his spine.

“…Maybe it’s a faulty phone?” Tried Dean but his shrug was a little too forced and Sam set the phone back onto the hook before the recorded message made him question his sanity.

Kali and Meg didn’t have phones so calling them was out of the question. Summoning Kali required a blood sacrifice so that wasn’t appropriate and they didn’t have the ingredients to summon Meg (nor would they find a goat’s head anywhere near there).

With questions buzzing around their minds, they decided the best course of action would be to continue on their journey home and once they greeted the girls, they would return to the barn they’d encountered the djinns in to pick up Baby and hopefully, gank a couple of meddling monsters.

They ventured out of the cabin and walked for twenty minutes, hoping to stumble across some kind of bus route, but the narrow, winding roads were empty and they soon came to realise they were heading far away from any kind of civilisation.

Then, a lone cherry pick-up truck slowed beside them and a man around Dean’s age rolled the window down. He sported a short beard and a friendly grin and he tipped his cap in greeting.

“Where you folks headin’?” He asked, voice gruff but not unkind. 

“Bus station,” Dean replied and the stranger chuckled and shook his head. 

“Not down this road, you’re not. Where are you hopin’ this bus’ll take you?”

“The nearest train station,” said Sam and the stranger stared at them bewildered.

“That’s a lot of travellin’,” he remarked before scrutinising their bedraggled appearances. “Ah… you fellas aren’t from around here, are you?”

They shook their heads and the stranger smirked and unlocked the doors for them.

“Hop in and tell me where I’m takin’ you.”

Dean and Sam blinked at each other, stunned. Since when were people so kind to them? Since when did their luck run this high? Usually their lives were all death and blood.

The four clambered into the truck, Sam in the front (since he was the largest) and the others in the back and they made themselves comfortable as Sam told the friendly stranger about how they were trying to find their way back to Kansas. He left out a lot of details about how they had been ‘kidnapped’ and fortunately, the man didn’t seem to care about how or why they looked filthy, emaciated and exhausted so he didn’t ask many questions.

About twenty minutes into the journey, the truck suddenly pulled into the side of an unmarked road; no pedestrians or any form of life in sight.

Sam turned to the driver to ask if everything was alright, only to freeze when a hand gun was aimed directly between his eyes.

Dean swore and lurched forwards as Castiel and Gabriel attempted to summon their blades, only to remember they couldn’t, but the driver clicked the safety off his pistol and shot Dean a warning glare.

“Move one more inch and I’ll decorate the upholstery with his brain,” the driver growled until Dean slowly backed down. The driver smirked.

“Wallets, phones and cash,” he stated. “Put ‘em on the floor and get out of the truck.”

Sam narrowed his eyes. “You’re kidding, right? We look like this and you think we have anything other than the grotty clothes on our backs?”

The driver’s smirk widened. “Well, give me them too if you like.”

“We ain’t giving you jack,” snarled Dean and the driver shot him another warning frown.

“Take off your clothes, pretty boy. That leather jacket’ll go for a few bucks and I’m sure you’ve got somethin’ in your pockets I can flog.”

“If you think I’m gonna strip for you-”

Sam squeezed his eyes shut as the barrel of the gun made contact with his forehead.

“Strip or I shoot,” growled their captor and Dean gulped and nodded; he couldn’t let Sam get hurt. He began to unbutton his shirt and the driver chuckled, wolf-whistling mockingly as he moved onto the next button. Beside Dean, Cas looked livid and a soft growl escaped his lips, but there was nothing he could do as the driver pressed the gun harder into Sam’s skin.

“Hey, you too, blue eyes,” said the driver. “Strip.”

With a furious scowl, Castiel did as he was told and the driver chuckled again as the angel pulled his tie from his neck and began to unbutton his shirt.

Their captor did not account for Gabriel snatching the tie and choking him with it.

The driver scrabbled at his neck as Gabriel pinned him to the back of the chair from behind. He lost hold of his gun in his haste to escape from Gabriel’s strangulating grip and Sam lunged forwards and grabbed the weapon, aiming it at the driver’s head.

Gabriel let go of the tie and the driver’s hands shot up into the air as he whimpered pathetically.

“Don’t kill me,” he babbled and Sam rolled his eyes and smashed the butt of the weapon into his skull, knocking him out cold.

Gabriel handed the tie back to Castiel and the seraph retied it as if everything was perfectly normal.

Dean suddenly grinned. “Well, that was lucky.”

The others stared at him in disbelief and his grin widened.

“Guys, we have a truck!”

Gabriel blinked in realisation and began to smirk but Castiel and Sam glared at their brothers.

“Seriously, Dean? There’s an unconscious psycho beside me and your first thought is _‘let’s steal his truck’_?” Huffed Sam. 

“It’s not like he’s dead,” protested Dean and Sam threw his brother a bitchface and waggled the gun in front of him.

“We cannot kidnap a man and his truck; especially one that tried to kill me less than thirty seconds ago!”

Dean raised an eyebrow and Sam’s face fell into his palm.

“We are not dumping his body on the side of the road.”

“Just to the train station,” piped up Gabriel. “We’ll leave the car there and he’ll wake up in the driver’s seat.”

“We don’t even know where the station is,” pointed out Castiel and Dean smirked before reaching into the driver’s pocket and pulling out his phone.

“Sure we do. We have a GPS.”

“Dean!” Scolded Sam but for once, Gabriel was on the older brother’s side and he snorted.

“C’mon, Sam. Live a little. You should be all for a little payback after having the guy nearly shoot you.”

Sam and Castiel glanced at each other defeatedly before closing their eyes.

“Fine,” sighed Sam. “But we don’t hurt him any more than we already have.”

“You mean more than _you_ have.”

“Can it, Gabe.”

Ten minutes later, there was an unconscious man in the tail of the truck with Dean at the wheel and the others in the main body of the vehicle. A phone sat on the dashboard, announcing directions to the background sounds of Bon Jovi and none of them felt quite as guilty as they probably should have.


	4. Days 4 and 5

In hindsight, they probably should have freshened themselves up a little in the restroom before hopping onto a train and subjecting an entire carriage to their rancid, however-many-weeks-old stench.

As it was, they now had the whole carriage to themselves and judging by the disgusted, horrified and rather rude glares they received earlier when everyone had vacated the carriage in unison, Team Free Will were going to enjoy a quiet journey for the next few hours.

Grabbing coffee and a meal had been amusing as the refreshment carriage was at the back of the train and Sam, Dean, Cas and Gabe were in the second carriage from the front. Other passengers plastered themselves to the walls and Gabriel couldn’t help but chuckle and liken it to the parting of the Red Sea performed by Moses. 

The next six hours would land them in Riverton, Wyoming. After that they would take a bus to Casper and then get another train, which would skirt through Nebraska and stop at Bird City, Kansas. After all that travelling, maybe they could convince Dean to sit on a plane to get back to Lawrence. If not… train or bus it was.

It would take them days to get back home but they’d get there in the end, then they could borrow one of the girls’ cars to retrieve Baby and gank a couple of djinns.

After three hours, Castiel found a newspaper and began reading to pass the time. He sat quietly next to the window and didn’t notice when Dean’s eyes began to close a little distance away.

The sound of Gabriel and Sam chattering softly to each other was enough to make Dean sleepy. His body was warm and relaxed now he knew they were heading in the right direction and his brain was trying very hard to shut down.

Something wasn’t quite right though and he couldn’t put his finger on what. He glanced over to Castiel and suddenly, the angel looked very inviting in that moment; like a particularly comfortable pillow. There were a couple of empty seats next to him and the longer Dean stared, the more bed-like the angel and his spare seats became. 

He didn’t notice how out-of-character he was acting as he shuffled over to the angel and plopped beside him. Castiel didn’t spare him a glance so he assumed the angel had no problem with a little company. With half-lidded eyes, Dean lay his head on Cas’ shoulder and smiled at how contented he felt. Once he settled down, Castiel wrapped an arm around him, holding him close as he continued reading and Dean hummed in approval, failing to notice how odd they were both acting.

Castiel smiled when Dean curled his arms around his middle and began to doze off and when he rested his head against Dean’s, he didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary about their behaviour either.

Sam and Gabriel did.

They stared at the pair for a few moments, silent and contemplative and wondering why everything about their current situation felt _wrong._ Dean and Cas didn’t cuddle. They didn’t act all affectionate with each other and they certainly didn’t sleep in each other’s arms.

They both had girlfriends for goodness sake.

Sam glanced at Gabriel and the archangel gazed back and for one confusing moment, they both wondered if it would be socially acceptable for them to cuddle too.

They turned away with flushed cheeks and continued their previous conversation.

 

* * *

 

When Dean’s eyes flickered open, he felt… happy. His nap was restful and Castiel still had an arm draped around him; the angel gazing through the window at all the peaceful scenery flashing by. For a few moments, Dean didn’t dare move; he knew if he did, Castiel would release him and for some reason he really didn’t want the angel to move away.

Without twisting his head, he flicked his gaze over to Sam and Gabriel and quirked an eyebrow at the sight of the archangel’s head resting in Sam’s lap; Sam’s hand splayed protectively over Gabriel’s stomach as they both caught up on their sleep. There was something oddly… familiar about the scene and Dean wasn’t quite sure why.

He turned his attention then to Cas, gaze roaming over the angel’s handsome face and curious, ocean eyes. He idly thought Castiel’s stubble framed his jaw line quite nicely and even caked in filth and looking ragged and weary, he thought the angel looked stunning. Castiel’s presence was always so commanding yet reassuring and Dean knew it wasn’t the vessel of Jimmy he found attractive. Sure, the vessel was good-looking, but Castiel added that extra something to it. Maybe it was the certainty of his words when he opened his mouth or the age-old gaze that spoke volumes of the things he’d seen and experienced, or maybe it was how Castiel had given everything he’d ever known up for the Winchesters, for humanity. Maybe it was that Castiel had chosen Dean and Sam over Heaven, over his own siblings and he’d stuck with them through thick and thin time and time again; even when he was broken and lost and thought himself worthless, he still tried to help the Winchesters and he always would.

Even when Dean had turned him away, insulted him and fought with him, Castiel always came back in the end, ready to help, ready to serve and maybe that’s why Dean loved him so much.

_…Wait… what?_

Dean scowled at himself. Where had that come from?

Castiel must have felt the minute movement and he turned to look at Dean, their faces suddenly inches from one another.

Dean’s gaze automatically tracked to the angel’s lips without him asking it to and he caught Castiel’s doing the same. For a moment, neither of them moved, staring awkwardly at each other’s lips and when green eyes met blue, there was a tension between them that felt familiar. 

Their staring lasted at least a minute until eventually Dean dragged his gaze away with a quiet cough. With dawning horror, he realised he’d left his hand over the angel’s thigh just as Castiel had left his arm around his middle and they abruptly pulled away from each other.

Dean squeezed his eyes shut as Castiel dropped his gaze to the floor.

They were in relationships! With women! Why were they thinking about…?

Dean quickly put an end to that trail of thought. He didn’t know what he was thinking and he certainly wasn’t going to dwell on it. 

His gaze flicked once more to Sam and Gabriel cuddling on the other side of the train and he had to look away, frustrated by how his heart ached in longing.

“Sleep well?” Asked Castiel softly and Dean scrubbed a hand down his face.

“Like the dead,” he muttered before straightening. “How far are we from Riverton?”

“A couple of hours,” murmured Castiel and Dean internally groaned. He just wanted to get home and clear his head and see his loving girlfriend and adopted son.

Something niggled at the back of his mind and he forced it to be quiet because he didn’t want to think about how wrong all this felt. Something wasn’t right about their situation and Dean didn’t want to believe it but he had a feeling something bad was about to go down.

And it had something to do with his unwanted thoughts about Castiel.

…Maybe they should take a plane to Kansas. At least then, Dean wouldn’t have to dwell on his bad vibes for too long. He could suffer through a flight if it meant they could get home quicker.

“…I was thinking we should grab a flight back to Kansas once we reach Wyoming,” murmured Dean and Castiel arched an eyebrow in surprise.

“Aren’t you afraid of flying?”

Dean’s lips drew into a thin line. “At this point, I’ll do anything for a hot shower.”

Castiel nodded slowly. “Are you certain?”

“Yeah,” Dean huffed. “I can suffer through a short flight if it means we can get back home to the girls.”

The last word sounded bitter and unnatural on his tongue and he ignored it even when Castiel’s brows pinched into a frown.

“We should inform our brothers,” said Cas quietly but Dean held a hand out as he jerked his head towards the slumbering pair.

“Best to wait ‘til later.”

Castiel watched their brothers with a deepening frown and Dean knew he wasn’t the only one who was having difficulties with their situation. The angel nodded anyway and settled back into his seat to watch the scenery and Dean retrieved the neatly folded newspaper from the Cas’ lap and began to read.

 

* * *

 

Sam was in one of those light slumbers where you knew you were inside a dream but you were helpless to do anything about it and you just had to sit back and let the dream play out.

It was Christmas eve. The bunker was decked in decorations and they were sat in the living area with the lights dimmed and music playing quietly in the background as they talked and shared a plethora of chocolates and festive candy and sipped on hot chocolates topped with cream and marshmallows. The scene was cosy and cheerful and Sam felt himself smiling at the feeling. Dean was cracking jokes about how Gabriel should perch on top of their tree to complete the look and the archangel countered that they should tie a bow over Dean’s mouth and send him back to Amazon in a sellotaped box. Castiel muttered something about duct tape being stronger and Dean looked highly affronted before he suddenly dragged the seraph into his arms and pressed sloppy kisses over his neck, refusing to stop even when Castiel batted at him half-heartedly.

Sam thought he should’ve been shocked or even disturbed by his brother’s strange actions, but his dream self merely rolled his eyes as if it was to be expected and Gabriel began gagging beside him, lobbing a handful of Maltesers at the pair.

“Bet Moose and I could do better,” teased Gabriel and he lunged at Sam playfully, puckering his lips ridiculously as Sam shoved him away with another eye roll. Gabriel pouted for a moment but the banter between Dean and Gabriel soon restarted when Dean huffed out a warning about defiling his baby brother.

“We’re not even together,” huffed Gabriel before wiggling his eyebrows at Sam. “Although I wouldn’t say no,” he smirked and Sam flipped him a middle finger even though his chest felt all light and airy.

Dean and Castiel glanced at each other knowingly before conversation turned to weird monsters they’d come across during the festive season.

As they chatted, Sam found himself watching Gabriel more and more; the playfulness in his vibrant amber eyes, his enthusiasm when he told a story, his joyous laughter when Castiel was being particularly dry witted and the younger Winchester couldn’t help but smile at the archangel. He felt warm and excited when he was around Gabriel; eager to learn what the archangel was going to do next, knowing there would never be a dull moment with him. Gabriel always found a way to cheer him up and despite his rocky start with the Winchesters, he’d eventually come around to their way of thinking and sacrificed his life for them to let them escape from Lucifer. He’d fought his family for them; something he’d never wanted to do and that was only the beginning.

Gabriel had known he was going to die in that hotel; he’d known he would never defeat Lucifer, but he’d still chosen to stand up for the Winchesters and when Metatron had brought a slither of Gabriel’s grace back to fool Castiel, the archangel had clawed his way back into existence and the Winchesters had held the bunker door open for him whilst he recharged his powers. It had taken months and things were a little tense between them all at first (Gabriel was still an archangel and Team Free Will hadn’t had much luck with archangels, just as Gabriel hadn’t had much luck with the Winchesters; y’know, with dying and all), but eventually he got up to full power and everyone had expected him to leave.

He never did. ‘One last hunt’ turned into two, which turned into ten and it wasn’t long before Gabriel realised he was a permanent member of Team Free Will. Castiel was thrilled and Dean was secretly pleased (as much as he pretended to dislike Gabriel, everyone knew the pair had bonded over their love of desserts and movie tastes). Sam was ecstatic because it meant Gabriel could teach him so much more than he’d already learned and he never tired of Gabriel’s stories or his bubbly personality.

Two years passed and Sam and Gabriel found themselves growing closer. They even managed to help Cas and Dean get together and with them making heart eyes at one another, Gabriel and Sam opted to team up in more hunts or even finding excuses to leave the room together so they wouldn’t have to watch the thick sexual tension between their idiotic brothers clog up the room.

Dean started making jokes about their friendship and after a year, Gabriel was teasing Sam whenever he could; flirting and touching and making obscene gestures whilst questioning victims on hunts.

At first, Sam thought he was trying to get a rise out of him but now, he wasn’t so sure. Gabriel got bored of pranks rather quickly; they grew stale after a while and he wanted to start the next one. It didn’t look like he was going to stop teasing Sam any time soon and the youngest Winchester had to wonder if the archangel was actually pranking him or if there was something more to his banter.

So far, he’d been too chicken to ask.

“Earth to Samsquatch, come in, Samsquatch,” Gabriel said and Sam blinked out of his musings. The archangel offered him a bright smile and Sam felt his chest warm as he smiled back.

At two A.M. it was clear they were growing tired. Conversation dwindled as Sam and Dean struggled to keep their eyes open and Castiel gently pulled Dean to his feet as he bid their brothers a good night.

“I think it’s time you hit the hay too, kiddo,” murmured Gabriel fondly as Sam yawned widely and his eyes shifted out of focus. “C’mon.”

He tugged Sam to his feet, chuckling when the human stumbled into his arms sleepily. Gabriel held him for a minute, allowing him to regain his balance and Sam mourned the loss of the angel’s body against his when Gabriel pushed him upright.

“Let’s get you to bed,” chuckled Gabriel and Sam allowed himself to be led towards his room. Taking a risk, he linked his fingers with Gabriel’s and the archangel squeezed his hand gently, making Sam’s hopes rise.

They arrived at his doorway and Gabriel offered him a kind smile.

“Have a good night’s rest, kid,” he hummed as he tried to pull his hand out of Sam’s grip, but Sam held tight, suddenly gathering courage he hadn’t thought he possessed.

“You can’t go yet,” he mumbled. “There’s a rule.”

Gabriel cocked an eyebrow and Sam glanced upwards towards the mistletoe dangling above them.

The archangel blinked and chuckled as he shook his head. “You’re very tired, Sam.”

“I know what I’m saying,” Sam said quietly, forcing himself to wake up a little more and Gabriel frowned for a second, scrutinising Sam’s face. He tilted his head.

“Sam…” he began warningly but the human shook his head and took a step closer, gaze begging Gabriel to understand.

Gabriel’s eyes widened a fraction. “You sure?” He sounded hopeful.

Sam smiled and nodded before leaning down to catch the archangel’s lips tenderly. Gabriel melted into the kiss and cupped a hand around Sam’s neck as he returned it. 

Gabriel’s lips were soft and sweet and Sam’s heart was racing as they pulled back from each other.

Gabriel beamed and Sam found himself returning the expression.

“Stay with me for Christmas eve?” Sam asked tentatively and Gabriel’s smile grew wider as he let Sam guide him into his room, their hands still linked.

 

* * *

 

Sam awoke with a confused frown. Where had that dream come from? Why was he dreaming about kissing Gabriel? Why was he dreaming about Cas and Dean in a relationship?

…Why was Gabriel’s head in his lap?

He glanced down at the archangel and paused. He looked peaceful… content. Sam was reluctant to disturb him and for a few moments, he gazed at his friend, a strange feeling of warmth and…something else blossoming throughout his chest the longer he stared. 

Unthinking, he reached out to brush a filthy strand of hair from Gabriel’s face so it wouldn’t irritate his eyes and he paused when the angel leaned into his hand with a happy smile. Tentatively, Sam placed his palm over the angel’s cheek, fascinated when Gabriel nuzzled into it. His heart stuttered and he smoothed his thumb over the archangel’s cheek, his other hand splaying wide over Gabriel’s soft stomach. He wasn’t sure what he was trying to achieve, but Gabriel made a quiet sound of approval before sliding his hand over the one Sam had on his stomach and leaning further into the one on his cheek.

Sam hesitated, unsure whether to leave his hands in their current positions or pull away. A few seconds later, Gabriel’s eyes flickered open, making the decision for him.

The archangel looked up at him sleepily, smiling for a brief moment before he noticed how problematic their position was. Confused, he pulled away from the hand Sam had on his cheek and stared at it for a moment before sitting upright and turning to Sam with a puzzled frown, clearly searching for answers.

Sam blinked and gazed back silently, unable to offer anything helpful (he wasn’t sure what got into him either), but there was a pause as the pair stared at each other and Sam licked his lips nervously because he was pretty sure he was already in a relationship, but he couldn’t get his mind off that stupid dream and even caked in dirt and looking weary and bedraggled, Gabriel was still attractive.

The archangel’s gaze tracked the movement of his tongue sweeping over his lips with a hunger that made heat pool in Sam’s belly and suddenly all he could think about was what it would be like to taste the archangel’s lips.

Gabriel’s gaze flicked back up to Sam’s eyes and the human was surprised to find his own expression reflected back at him. With a silent gulp, Sam slowly tilted forwards and he swore Gabriel straightened a little to make the angle easier.

A warning cough sounded from the other side of the carriage and Sam snapped his gaze to Dean and Cas. Castiel looked bewildered by their actions, but Dean was wearing a small, disapproving frown as he glanced between them both and Sam had to turn away, guilt eating at his heart. He was already in a relationship with Jess; how could he think about kissing Gabriel?

He frowned. Something about that whole sentence seemed off. 

His stomach dropped. Was he having second thoughts about his relationship with Jessica? He closed his eyes in frustration and wondered if maybe he should keep his distance from Gabriel for a little while.

Little did he know, Gabriel was facing a similar dilemma.

His relationship with Kali had never been perfect. They were in a rather open relationship, which meant they brought home strangers from time to time and had a bit of meaningless fun. They used to share their conquests, but as time passed, they found themselves drifting apart, sometimes staying with their ‘one-night stands’ for more than one night and Gabriel had come to realise it was because they found it difficult staying in one another’s company for too long. That’s why they argued so much and probably why they broke up as often as they did.

The sex was fantastic; better than any sex Gabriel had experienced in his long life, but that was probably the only thing keeping them together. They had nothing in common and they didn’t particularly enjoy being in each other’s company when sex wasn’t on the table. There were moments where they could be tender with one another, but these were few and far between and growing more infrequent as they aged. They were drifting further and further apart and to be honest, Gabriel didn’t feel like doing anything about it. 

However, that didn’t give him an excuse to tempt Sam into anything when the kid was already in a relationship.

He paused.

Since when was he attracted to Sam?

He dropped his gaze with a confused scowl. There was no denying Sam was physically good-looking. He was brave and selfless and had a heart of gold when it came to his friends. He was willing to die for his family but he was also smart and dry-witted and okay, it wasn’t hard to understand why he was attractive.

But Gabriel was an age-old archangel-trickster-demigod who’d experienced every relationship and kink and monster under the sun. Sam was just a boring human; what could possibly be so enticing about that?

He shook his head and tried not to dwell on his thoughts; he might not like where the answers would lead him.

Dean’s next words were like a lifeboat to a drowning man.

“I was thinking maybe we could get a flight to Kansas after this,” he huffed, strangely not looking at Cas. “Y’know… to reduce travel time.”

“Sounds like a good idea,” Sam replied immediately, not even bothering to ask if Dean was sure he could stomach flying. He didn’t want to be stuck in a cramped space with Gabriel any longer than he had to.

Dean nodded stiffly and dropped his gaze and even Castiel looked a little uncomfortable as he returned his focus to the window.

The carriage fell silent after that, a heavy tension settling between the four as they waited for their train journey to end. 

 

* * * 

 

Dean was looking more and more nervous the deeper into the airport they ventured. His eyes were wide and distrusting and when he heard a couple of passengers chatting about how they’d just come off a flight that had only been running on three out of four engines, colour drained from his already pale face and he whined softly.

Castiel glanced at him in concern and wished his grace was at full power so he could soothe his friend’s worries, but alas, they weren’t so he merely trotted after Sam and Gabriel as the pair slipped into the washroom.

Dean finally relaxed at the sight of showers.

There wasn’t much they could do about their ruined clothes and they sagged slightly at the thought of having to throw them back on later, but the prospect of a hot shower made it so they weren’t too glum. They even bought a couple of tacky beach towels to dry off with.

Castiel had never had need for a shower as an angel, but his brief period of humanity a few years earlier had opened his eyes to its therapeutic effects and right now, Castiel could think of nothing better than the pounding of hot, steamy water against his aching muscles. He suddenly understood why Dean rattled on about water pressure so much.

He found himself slumping against the wall as the heavenly water cascaded down his back and chest, warming him to his core. He ran his hands through his hair, clearing the grime and muck away until the water around his feet didn’t look so black. He closed his eyes and released a soft sigh as his muscles loosened and his body was cleansed of filth.

A relieved groan floated over from the cubicle next to him and Castiel’s cheeks heated as he realised it was Dean’s voice. The hunter was clearly enjoying his shower and for a moment, Castiel regretted not being in there with him.

He quickly shook the thought from his mind and bowed his head guiltily because he was with Meg and he shouldn’t be having such thoughts about his best friend.

With a handful of soap already provided in the cubicle, Cas began to lather himself up until his entire body was coated in soap bubbles. He smiled at the fresh smell and it wasn’t long before he shut down the shower and grabbed the towel he was sharing with Dean.

He quickly dried himself off and slung the towel back over the wall of Dean’s cubicle before throwing his ruined clothes on with a grimace.

He wandered to the drinking fountain to freshen up his mouth and by the time he was done, Dean was stepping out of the cubicle in only a towel, searching for the jeans that had fallen off the shower wall sometime during his wash.

Castiel felt his mouth go dry as he stared at miles of tanned, muscled skin and when his gaze caught the faded handprint he’d left on Dean’s shoulder years before, something possessive rolled low in his gut. Their gazes locked as Dean bent to pick up his jeans and when he saw the odd expression Cas was wearing, he paused, his body reacting to the look of hunger in the angel’s eyes.

Dean stood slowly and something in him preened when Cas’ eyes roamed over his body, taking in every tiny detail and flaw. He never dropped his gaze and Castiel took a step forward because he knew every inch of that body; he’d been the one to put it back together when he’d raised the hunter from Hell, yet he had the sudden urge to explore it all over again; to touch and feel and kiss it until everyone knew Dean belonged to him.

As the possessiveness in Cas’ gaze grew, Dean shivered and took a step closer to the angel. He’d never had anyone look at him like that and whatever Cas was offering, he wanted it.

“ _What the-_ has anyone seen my clothes?” Sam called abruptly and Dean and Cas suddenly realised where they were and what they were doing and they looked away from each other in shame. Dean quickly retreated to the cubicle and locked the door behind him.

There was a pause until Sam growled out: _“Gabriel!”_

Gabriel cackled and there was the sound of Sam banging on the cubicle wall.

“Not funny! Give me back my clothes, jerk!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” hummed Gabriel and Castiel rolled his eyes as Sam unlocked his door and began battering on Gabriel’s, wearing only a towel.

Deciding to leave the pair to it, Castiel opted to leave the steamy shower room to clear his head of the disturbing moment he’d just shared with Dean.

Sam growled softly. “Gabriel, open the door or throw my clothes over.”

Gabriel chuckled. “Are you standing outside, butt-naked?” 

“No, I have a towel,” huffed Sam. “Which you won’t be able to use if you don’t return my clothes.”

Gabriel rolled his eyes and quickly admitted defeat. He was still sopping wet and he couldn’t put his own clothes on in that state. He’d just wanted to mess with Sam for a couple of minutes (can’t take the ‘trick’ out of ‘Trickster’), but the hunter had a point; he couldn’t use the towel if Sam was wearing it.

With a shrug, he moved to unlock the door so he could pass Sam’s clothes around it, but what he didn’t know was Sam had chosen that exact moment to hammer on the door again.

Gabriel jumped backwards as the door flung open and Sam stumbled through.

They stared at each other in surprise for a few moments before Sam’s gaze inevitably travelled southwards and his eyes widened at the realisation the archangel was stark naked.

Not that he had anything to be ashamed of, mind you.

Sam continued to stare and Gabriel let him and for a few seconds, all Sam could think about was how he wanted to lick every water droplet off the angel’s gorgeous body. He wondered if the angel knew how beautiful he looked when the tiny water beads glistened against his skin.

Gabriel, on the other hand, was staring at Sam’s bared torso and wondering what kind of moans he could garner from scraping his nails down it or sucking at his nipples.

He wondered if he could encourage Sam to drop his towel.

Then Sam’s cheeks flushed a violent red and he averted his gaze and held out an expectant hand.

“…Clothes…” he managed, voice hoarse and Gabriel quickly remembered why he wasn’t supposed to be thinking like that about Sam. He dumped the items in the human’s hand and tried to cover himself at least a little as Sam scrambled out of the cubicle with stuttered apologies.

Shortly after, the towel was slung over the cubicle wall and Gabriel let his head fall backwards with an embarrassed sigh before he began drying himself down.

 

* * *

 

None of them knew how Gabriel had managed to pay for four flights to Kansas and Gabriel wasn’t about to tell them he’d stolen someone’s credit card when they’d walked into the airport. 

However, they did start to realise something wasn’t right when one of the pretty flight attendants winked at Dean as she leaned over to offer him a drink, displaying far too much cleavage for him, and Castiel actually _growled_ at her.

They knew there was _definitely_ something wrong when Dean smiled at her a little forcedly, clearly disinterested and pointedly laced his fingers with Castiel’s until she backed off with an apologetic glance.

When she offered them their drinks with a polite _“For you and your partner,”_ Dean had finally had enough.

“Is this real?” He hissed out, making Sam and Gabriel lean forwards to hear the conversation. They were a row behind and although they couldn’t see what Dean and Castiel were doing, they could certainly hear everything.

“Are we sure this is real?” Dean said again, voice low. “Because none of it feels right.” He shook his head in frustration. “We’re not acting like… us.”

Castiel frowned and nodded slowly in agreement. “We do seem to be behaving largely out-of-character.”

“It was rather convenient that we never saw any djinn after waking up in that barn,” said Sam carefully and Dean’s expression drew into one of worry.

“We woke up in an entirely different barn to what we went into.”

Castiel cocked an eyebrow. “…You believe this is a dream?”

Dean ran a hand through his hair. “I… I don’t know. But something ain’t right here. Chased by wolves, held at gunpoint by a truck driver, not being able to get hold of the girls… it all seems a little ridiculous. Planned, even? Like a story. And then there’s us acting weird with all the…” he trailed off and gestured vaguely with his hand.

“There’s us acting like we want to be in a relationship with each other,” mumbled Sam softly and the group fell into an awkward silence.

“…Yeah,” Dean managed after a few moments. “And even when I think of Lisa…” he tapered off once more, unable to finish because of guilt.

“It’s nothing compared to what you feel for Cas?” Asked Sam quietly and Dean refused to answer, but they all knew Sam had hit the nail on the head. “…I get it,” Sam admitted and Gabriel’s gaze snapped up to him in shock before his expression turned pained and he had to look away again.

“This can’t be right,” whispered Dean. “This isn’t us. This isn’t our lives. It can’t be. It’s got to be fake.”

“But djinns are supposed to give you something you desire,” frowned Gabriel. “No offense, but I don’t desire any of this. I don’t want to be graceless and filthy and exhausted and having thoughts about Sam when I’m already in a relationship and he’s already in a relationship. I don’t want to be stuck with you four, travelling the USA by train, bus and plane as we face wolves and psycho truck drivers. Not exactly on my bucket list.”

Sam frowned. “I know. I don’t get it either. If this really was a dream of the djinns’ doing, I think they would have given us something a little more… comfortable. Or at least something cleaner.”

“So, what? You think this is real?” Snapped Dean. “You think we’re in love or something?”

Sam rolled his eyes in irritation as Gabriel scowled.

“I don’t know what’s going on, Dean,” huffed Sam. “None of us do. Maybe if we get back to the bunker, it’ll give us some answers. If the girls start behaving weird, we know it’s a dream. If not, well…”

“We’re in trouble,” muttered Gabriel.

Tense silence fell between them again.

 

* * *

 

There were two huge black wings splayed out in front of him. Upon closer inspection, the feathers were not actually black, but a combination of deep blues, purples, reds and greens that gave off the impression of being black. The colours shone under the light like a Starling bird.

Dean carded his fingers through a few feathers of the right wing and the appendage shuddered and twitched in delight, spanning a little wider to give him more access. Dean smiled and ran both hands through the wings and they shifted and relaxed under his fingers, their owner sighing softly in appreciation.

Dean grinned and gently pushed their owner onto the bed until he was lying flat on his stomach and Dean was straddling his hips, hands buried in the enormous wings. He rested his weight comfortably on the man below him and began massaging the muscles beneath the feathers, stroking and rubbing and plucking out broken feathers expertly until the man below him was a groaning mess.

He leaned down to kiss the other man’s spine and he brushed his lips up its length before placing a sweet kiss on the back of his neck.

“Dean…” the man groaned and Dean would know that gravelly voice anywhere, even dripping with pleasure. It sent a little thrill down his spine to hear his name moaned in that way by that voice.

“Yeah, Cas?” He teased and the angel’s next words were muffled by the fact his face was buried in the duvet.

“Don’t stop.”

Dean chuckled and rubbed a clump of knots out of the angel’s left wing and Castiel whimpered in bliss. The hunter laughed and trailed his hands over the radii of the wings before reaching the bases. He massaged them firmly, manipulating them in different directions until they were loose and relaxed and then he pressed the heels of his palms into the angel’s aching shoulder blades and shirtless back. Cas whined and moaned filthily until Dean’s arousal was straining at his jeans and he leaned over to pepper kisses over the right wing.

After a few moments (and a few teasing grinds against Cas’ clothed rear), Dean kissed the angel’s shoulder and leaned close to his ear.

“Fronts,” he whispered. Cas wasted no time in rolling onto his back so Dean could work on the insides of his wings.

Dean smirked at his enthusiasm and began treatment on the insides, kneading and stroking and plucking as Castiel wrapped his arms around him happily, rubbing Dean’s back in gratitude.

They shared a sweet kiss before Dean returned to his task and by the time he was finished, Cas’ wings were quivering in joy; the angel himself looking drugged and content.

Dean noticed oil beginning to trickle from the tiny glands at the top of his wings and with a smirk, he teased a finger at one of them, circling it sensually until Cas arched off the bed with a quiet moan.

Oil trickled faster and Dean dragged it through the feathers, cleaning and conditioning them. Every so often, he dipped his finger into a gland and Castiel whimpered and scraped his nails down Dean’s back until he couldn’t take it anymore and wrapped the human up in his wings so he could kiss him senseless.

Dean laughed joyfully and settled into Cas’ body, hands fisted in the angel’s wings and all he could think of was how lucky he was to have his angel.

 

* * *

 

Dean awoke with a start and a soft curse as his drink leapt for his crotch. Fortunately, it was only water but now he was cold and irritated with his latest dream.

He couldn’t even see Castiel’s wings without his eyeballs melting out of his skull, so why was he having dreams about grooming them? 

He sighed as he placed his cup on his tray table and let his head fall back against the head rest. He was tired of napping and feeling exhausted all the time. He was tired of his clothes being so dirty. He was tired of travelling; he just wanted to go home.

He glanced to his left to see Cas gazing at him worriedly.

Dean turned away wearily. Every time he looked into those sapphire eyes, his heart fluttered and he just wanted it to stop. He couldn’t even find it in himself to be mad that he hadn’t thought of Lisa that much for the past five days; he was just tired of everything.

The plane must have hit a cloud or a pocket of turbulence because it shuddered and rattled for a few moments and Dean suddenly remembered he was terrified of flying.

He’d been so wrapped up in wondering whether they were in a dream world or not that he’d forgotten he was supposed to be afraid.

The aircraft bounced again and Dean’s knuckles turned white from gripping the arm rests too tightly. He stiffened in his seat as his eyes widened and for a moment, all he could hear was his racing heart thumping loudly in his ears.

Then a gentle hand touched his shoulder and suddenly, Dean felt the fear melt away to be replaced with a sense of peace. He turned to Castiel in surprise.

“It appears my grace is slowly returning,” the angel answered softly and Dean’s heart ached because Castiel was only just regaining a fraction of his grace and already he was using it up to help Dean.

That was Cas in a nutshell.

Dean managed a small smile of gratitude and not for the first time, he wondered what it would be like to kiss Cas.

There was a soft laugh behind them and Dean peeked through the chairs to find Sam and Gabriel leaning against each other as they read something from a book that had probably been left behind by a previous passenger. They looked comfortable and relaxed with one another as they snickered and chuckled at whatever passage they were reading in – Dean glanced at the cover – _‘Fifty Shades of Grey’_ and it hit Dean that the scene was familiar. He wasn’t sure how or why, but seeing Sam and Gabe so close and smiling with one another just felt… right. 

A little like how it felt right being close to Cas.

His gaze slowly tracked to Castiel and he felt his heart flutter. He couldn’t even look at the angel without his body or mind expressing its delight and although he had his suspicions about this world being a dream, the first genuine slither of doubt about his relationship with Lisa entered his brain.

Djinns were supposed to grant their victim their deepest wishes when it came to their fabricated worlds. If this truly was a dream, did that mean his feelings for Cas were more complicated than he’d originally believed? They’d always been best friends and Dean would lay down his life for Cas’, but did their bond extend past friendship? 

Was he attracted to the angel?

Castiel met his confused gaze and as green eyes stared into curious baby blues, Dean realised getting out of this dream world had just become a whole lot more complicated.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two chapters left! I promise! No more moving the goalposts!


	5. Days 5 and 6

Once they’d disembarked the plane, they caught a bus into town and eventually found their way back to the bunker.

Minds heavy with unease, they surveyed their home for anything out of the ordinary and their hearts sunk when they couldn’t see Lisa or Jess’ cars parked outside. They crept into the bunker and stood atop the balcony, looking over the main living room with troubled frowns and every bone in their bodies screaming at them that something was wrong.

“Lisa?” Dean called out warily as he stalked down the stairs. “Ben? You home?” He checked his watch. Eight-twenty-five P.M. They should have been home by now.

“Jess?” Asked Sam, following his brother. “Anyone home?”

There was no response and Sam and Dean exchanged troubled glances before silently agreeing to split up and search the bunker for any signs of life whilst Gabriel and Castiel worked on contacting their own partners.

Sam trudged through corridor after corridor, opening door after door, but there were no signs of Jessica, Lisa or Ben. He soon came to his own bedroom door and for a moment, he hesitated; nervous about what he might find inside. 

With a quiet gulp, he slowly nudged the door open and stepped inside and immediately, he knew this wasn’t his life.

His room still held a double bed and the same stupid alarm clock with the faulty snooze button, but Jess’ trinkets and photographs were nowhere to be seen. Her make up case and its contents weren’t strewn over the side table and her hair brush wasn’t thrown haphazardly onto the bed sheets. Her romance books weren’t scattered over the floor and her perfume didn’t linger in the room, giving the air that pleasantly sweet, floral scent.

However, that wasn’t to say the room was bare.

There were chocolate bars peeking out from the book case and a stack of Norse mythology books were piled in the corner of the room. Photographs of him and a certain amber-eyed archangel dotted the room and the air smelled faintly of honey and maple syrup. A few golden feathers littered the floor.

Sam took it all in and found himself walking towards a particular picture of him and Gabriel. They weren’t doing anything interesting in the image; merely sitting in the library reading, but Sam had his arms wrapped around Gabriel as the archangel lay against him, pointing something out in the book they were sharing. They were both immersed in whatever they were reading, but Sam was holding the angel and Gabriel was totally relaxed and the image looked so natural that Sam couldn’t help but smile, not once wondering who had taken the picture.

He ran his thumb gently over the frame and the longer he stared at the photo, the more he began to realise how… familiar it looked. 

His heart ached and he frowned slightly because there was a part of him that believed the picture to be real whilst his mind insisted it couldn’t be. His heart and brain were torn and Sam’s mouth drew into a thin line because he couldn’t be sure if the dream was making him feel this way about the archangel or whether he’d always secretly felt like this and he’d been blind to it for so long.

But the more he gazed at the picture, the more he began to feel an itch under his skin; something he wasn’t quite grasping about the entire situation and it made him uneasy because the picture in his hands looked rather convincing. 

…What if… what if it was real?

He shook his head frustratedly. No, it couldn’t be. How could it? He’d been with Jessica for sixteen years now; longer than he’d been hunting with his brother.

He paused and frowned. Had he really been with Jessica that long and not proposed yet? That… couldn’t be right, could it?

He glanced down at the picture in his hands and tilted his head as he scrutinised it. Gabriel had only returned to them four years ago; he’d been with Jessica far longer than that.

…Hadn’t he?

He squeezed his eyes shut and replaced the picture on the book case. His head was starting to hurt and he needed to get out of this strange room.

He hurried out of his bedroom and made his way back to the angels.

 

* * *

 

Dean scowled deeper and deeper as he ventured through the corridors and was greeted by silence after each shout of a name. It appeared that Lisa, Ben and Jessica weren’t present within the bunker which was very odd considering the late hour. He’d been wandering the halls for twenty minutes and no one had revealed themselves.

He slowed as he came to Ben’s room and stared at it for a couple of moments as a sense of wrongness crept down his spine. He knocked gently and when he received no answer, he gingerly pushed the door open and froze at the sight that greeted him.

The room was cold and bare, with none of Ben’s school books or bag or DVDs scattered about the floor like there usually was. There were no clothes or toys heaped in the corner of the room and his laptop wasn’t perched on his bed like it was supposed to be. In fact, there was no bed in the room at all.

Nobody lived here and they hadn’t for a very long time.

Dean closed the door without lingering and stared at the wall for a few moments before cursing and throwing his fist against it until the knuckles bruised. He cursed again and let his forehead press against the cool concrete as he closed his eyes.

There was no doubt now that this was a dream and he didn’t need to look in his room to know that he’d find Lisa’s belongings absent. 

They had to get out of here. The question was: how?

With a defeated sigh, he turned and headed back towards the angels. Maybe they could provide some insight as to what to do from here.

When he found them, Castiel was looking concerned and Gabriel appeared angry, or at the very least, irritated.

“Meg isn’t answering my attempts to summon her,” Castiel explained quietly as Dean raised an eyebrow at him. “I can’t locate her.” He frowned. “This is very unlike her.”

“You have your juice back?” Asked Dean and Castiel tilted his head slightly. 

“Some, not all. It’s slow to return.”

Dean nodded in understanding and flicked his gaze to Gabriel as Sam chose that moment to join them all.

“Guys,” Sam began, but he was cut off by a frustrated growl from Gabriel.

“Kali’s ignoring me,” he snarled, eyes narrowed. “Every time I attempt to contact her, she blocks me out and I’ve no clue why.”

“Wait, but you can sense her?” Dean asked, eyes wide. So far, Kali was the only one they had proof of existing in this dream world.

…Which was really weird when he thought about it. Why Kali?

It didn’t matter anyway. They still needed to get out of here.

Gabriel swore violently and clenched his fists as he staggered a little; his newly-returned slither of power quickly being drained by his attempts to contact Kali.

“Answer me,” he growled out under his breath, eyes glowing golden as he concentrated his dwindling grace on the task. He stumbled again, eyes returning to normal once more as he was knocked off-focus and he snarled to himself again.

“She’s hidden herself,” he grated out. “I can’t locate her.”

Dean cocked an eyebrow as Castiel placed a comforting hand on his brother’s shoulder. Gabriel instantly sagged in disappointment.

“I don’t understand why she’s being difficult,” he sighed softly and Dean snorted then, crossing his arms.

“Because she ain’t real. None of this is.”

Castiel, Gabriel and Sam snapped their gazes up to him as he threw his hands up in frustration.

“Ben’s room is empty. Like, literally stripped of furniture. No one lives in it. There’s no one but us in the bunker. Meg won’t respond to Castiel; Lisa and Jess’ numbers don’t exist… think about it; none of this is real. It can’t be.” Dean shook his head. “We should’ve known there was something off when we woke up in Idaho after investigating a case in _Wichita._ This is the djinns’ doing and we’re probably still rotting in that barn in Wichita.”

Gabriel and Cas glanced at each other as Sam shifted uncomfortably.

“You’re sure this isn’t real?” Asked Gabriel carefully and Dean nodded, without a doubt. 

“It can’t be. The girls don’t live here.” He gestured to the angels. “It would certainly explain our weird behaviour towards each other if this is all just a dream. And it would explain why Kali doesn’t want to talk to us. If you’re in a relationship with Sam here, it would make sense that we don’t have regular contact with her.”

The angels shared another glance and nodded, satisfied. What Dean was saying certainly added up and them dreaming would explain why they had suddenly developed feelings for each other.

Sam frowned, troubled but no one noticed and Gabriel shrugged.

“Okay, so what do we do to get out of the dream?”

Dean raised his eyebrows in surprise. “Dude, you’re an archangel.”

Gabriel rolled his eyes. “Never been trapped by a djinn before. Not a clue how to wake up. Same probably goes for Cas.”

Cas nodded in agreement and Dean scrubbed a hand down his face.

“Right, well… I’ve been trapped by a djinn before.”

“How did you escape?” Asked Castiel and Dean’s mouth drew into a thin line.

“I… uh… I killed myself. When you die in the dream, you wake up in reality.”

The room fell silent.

“So, we have to be extra sure this really is a dream,” murmured Gabriel after a few seconds and once again Sam frowned and shifted uncomfortably.

“Which it obviously is,” huffed Dean. “It’s the only explanation.”

Gabriel nodded slowly, but now Cas was looking a little concerned. The task of killing oneself was not an easy feat. The idea of watching his friends die was even worse.

“Bullet’s quick and clean,” offered Dean softly. “We’ll be back in our own world before we even have time to register the shot.”

The angels nodded again and Castiel tilted his head. “You possess angel-killing bullets?”

“A few,” Dean replied but he sounded strained. “If this is like our own bunker, we should have some melted-down angel blades in the dungeon, forged into bullets.” He looked anxious at the idea of killing his friends. Last time he’d been caught in a djinn’s dream, it hadn’t been so difficult to pull the trigger. The idea of pulling it on Cas, Gabe and his brother was something that made his skin crawl and his mind scream.

But they needed to get back to their old lives.

He located his gun and the required bullets (thankful to see that the dream world still held those details) and returned to the main room in a matter of minutes. Both angels tensed upon spotting the bullets but Dean offered them an apologetic glance and they soon sagged.

Sam stared at the gun with a growing sense of horror.

“So… how are we doing this? Suicide or homicide?” Asked Dean, voice faltering slightly at the idea of shooting one of the others.

“Suicide,” said Castiel immediately. He couldn’t kill the Winchesters or his brother.

Dean smiled tightly and loaded the magazine with a standard bullet before slowly pressing the barrel to his head. Cas’ breath caught and Gabriel stiffened as the oldest Winchester squeezed his eyes shut and knocked the safety catch off.

Palm beginning to sweat and finger twitching nervously as it was placed on the trigger, Dean gulped and braced for the pain.

“Dean, wait!” Sam rushed out, eyes wide and scared and Dean paused as he turned to his brother, mind racing with fear.

“What?” He hissed and his brother stared at the gun until he lowered it.

“What if… what if you’re wrong?” Sam whispered.

“…About how we get out of the dream?” Asked Dean, nose scrunched up. He didn’t know how else to wake up.

“About this _being_ a dream,” corrected Sam quickly and Dean paused before narrowing his eyes at his brother.

“Sam… this can’t be real. Where are the girls?”

“I… I don’t know,” Sam admitted. “But what if… what if this is really our lives?”

Dean’s eyes widened in shock as Cas and Gabe gaped at the younger Winchester.

“You seriously think we’re in love with each other?” Asked Dean incredulously and Sam shifted awkwardly, prompting Dean to narrow his eyes.

“What did you see?”

Sam dropped his gaze. “My room. Jess’ things weren’t in there, but Gabe’s were. There was this photo of us together… it looked so natural… there was too much detail and the scene wasn’t anything special like a photo usually is, so it made me wonder if… maybe…” He trailed off and Dean scowled.

“Sam, if you’re having second thoughts about Jess, then that’s something you need to take up with her. You can’t run from it just because you’ve been given an easy way out. That’s what djinns do, remember? They give their victims a ‘happy life’ so they never want to wake up. Those pictures aren’t real. None of this is.”

“But what if it is?” Pleaded Sam desperately. “You didn’t see the picture, Dean. It felt… familiar. Like that’s how things are supposed to be.”

“Have you ever felt attraction to Gabe before these past few days?” Asked Dean irritatedly. “Just once? Even a hint of attraction.”

Sam paused before shaking his head sadly.

“Exactly,” snapped Dean. “This is what djinns do, Sam. They play tricks on your mind to keep you trapped so they can feed. Once we return to our own reality, you won’t even think about Gabe again.”

Sam frowned at his feet. Something still didn’t feel right.

“And what if I do?”

“Then you need to have a talk with Jess and Gabriel and sort things out,” huffed Dean. “But first, we need to get out of here.” He eyed the gun warily and began to raise it once more.

“Can we at least go back to the barn?” Asked Sam desperately. “See if there’s another way of waking up? I don’t… I don’t think I can watch us all do this.”

Dean frowned at his brother. “You still don’t believe me, do you?”

Sam looked away guiltily. “I… I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”

“Sam,” groaned Dean exasperatedly. “They’re messing with your head!”

“But what if I’m right?” Snapped Sam, patience wearing thin. “What if this really is our home?”

“Then how do you explain the girls?” Dean growled. “Did they just magically disappear to make way for our epic gay love story, huh?”

Sam snapped his mouth shut and looked away. “…I don’t know,” he admitted quietly. “But I know I can’t let you shoot yourself.”

Dean glared at him for a few moments before sighing and flicking the safety catch on and dropping the gun into his pocket.

“Fine. What did you want to do?”

Sam’s gaze flicked up to his brother in surprise and Dean stared tiredly back.

“…I just want proof that we truly are in a dream. If we are, fine; we’ll go ahead with your plan of… waking up. But I need something to convince me that we’re dreaming.”

“Like what?” Sighed Dean and Sam paused for a moment, contemplating the question before frowning.

“The ranch in Wichita. That’s where it all started, right? Maybe something there will convince me.”

Dean rubbed at his eyes wearily and nodded. “Fine. Great. Tomorrow, we’ll ride out there. Dream or not, right now, I need a shower, clean clothes and a solid six hours sleep.”

Sam nodded happily as his brother shook his head in exasperation and traipsed out of the room. Fresh clothes sounded like a fantastic idea right now and Sam was quick to follow his brother’s example.

 

* * *

 

Dean sighed at the feeling of soft, clean pyjamas against his skin. He smelled them for good measure and smiled at their light scent of washing powder. He ambled to his room, yawning widely and was just about to barge in when he realised it wouldn’t look as he was accustomed to. He hesitated for a moment before throwing caution to the wind and stomping in.

The room was tidier than usual, with none of Lisa’s (or Ben’s) belongings cluttering the shelves or bedside table and for a moment, Dean relaxed because it appeared that he lived in this room alone.

Then he noticed the blue tie strewn over the chair and the book about hive-keeping and honey-collecting placed neatly on the table and Dean gulped because he wasn’t sure if he could handle this right now.

He stalked slowly into the room and his breath caught at the three black feathers lying innocently on the carpet at the foot of the bed. He stared at them for a few moments before reaching over to pick one up. It was lighter than silk and somehow softer and Dean found himself smoothing the feather between his thumb and fingers, smiling slightly at its texture.

“Dean?”

The hunter startled and whirled to face Cas, who was hovering curiously in the doorway. As soon as the seraph’s gaze landed upon the feather, he knew he’d been caught and Cas raised his eyebrows silently at him before stepping further into the room. He eyed it warily for a few moments, noticing the tie and the book and a picture of him and Dean researching in a motel that the older Winchester had so far failed to notice was perched on a shelf. Castiel said nothing about the items as he cast his gaze to Dean.

“The bed in my room has no sheets or pillows. I was wondering where you keep the spares.”

“Down the hallway, take a right and it’s the second door on your left. That’s where they usually are in our world,” managed Dean, refusing to meet the angel’s gaze. It would make sense that Castiel had an empty room here.

Castiel nodded in gratitude and turned towards the door. He paused upon reaching it and seemed to almost… sag.

“Dean… I understand your feelings towards me at the moment are causing difficulties for you… but know that I am neither repulsed nor ashamed by them. If this truly is the djinns’ doing, such thoughts are as false as the world we are currently inhabiting and I understand they are out of your control. You have nothing to be concerned about. This does not discredit your relationship with Lisa.”

Dean nodded slowly in understanding but just as Cas made to leave, he frowned.

“And what if it isn’t the djinns’ doing?” He asked quietly, before scowling at himself because he was pretty sure Sam was wrong.

Castiel was quiet for a long time.

“Then my first statement still applies,” he murmured and with that, he vanished.

Dean had to mentally replay the conversation before his eyes widened and his gaze dropped to the feather between his fingers. 

This world was messing with all of their heads.

They needed to get out.

 

* * *

 

Sam stared at the photo, trying to work out where he’d seen it before. The longer he stared, the more his heart began to pulse with longing and his head began to throb.

He was lying in bed, pyjamas fresh and cool against his skin but he knew he wouldn’t get much sleep tonight because of the stupid picture. He needed to work things out and the picture was key to that.

There was a small knock at his door and Sam shouted “come in” without looking up; too focused on the photo.

“…Sam?”

The hunter’s gaze shot to the door at that and there Gabriel stood, looking uncharacteristically shy and maybe a little frustrated.

“…There’s no bed in my room,” he offered. “Actually, there’s nothing in my room. No furniture or clothes or even carpet. I um… my grace isn’t regenerating very quickly and I kinda need sleep, but I’m, uh… not sure where to do that.” He finally glanced at Sam and cocked his head. “…Is that the photo?”

Sam nodded silently and Gabriel shuffled his feet slightly until the hunter held the frame out in offering. Gabriel padded into the room, gaze flicking to the chocolates peeking out from the book case and the golden feathers Sam had scooped up and placed on the chair in the corner of the room. He glanced over the comedy DVDs that were all his favourites and the mythology books heaped in a pile on the floor and when he finally reached the bed, his heart was clenched in distress.

He gingerly accepted the photo and when he gazed at the intimate scene and their comfortableness with one another, he clutched at the frame a little tighter, his mind insisting there was something familiar about it. His slither of grace throbbed with sadness. 

“You feel it too,” whispered Sam and Gabriel nodded after a few moments as he returned the photo.

“I’m not saying it’s real,” murmured Gabriel. “…but there’s some familiarity to it.”

Sam gazed at the picture for a few more moments before glancing at the angel.

“You don’t have a bed,” he stated and Gabriel shook his head.

“I was going to sleep on the couch in the library, but I don’t know where you keep your blankets.”

Sam frowned. “The couch is tiny. You can’t sleep on that; you’ll wreck your back.”

Gabriel pulled a face. “I have to sleep somewhere.”

Sam paused before glancing at his double bed and back to Gabriel. The archangel raised an eyebrow and Sam shrugged.

“Apparently, you live in here anyway.”

Gabriel glanced at the feathers and quirked an amused smile. “Trying to get me into bed already, kiddo? Aren’t we going a little fast?”

Sam chuckled and scooted over for the shorter man. “Shut up, Shortstack.”

Gabriel grinned and slipped under the covers with as much fuss as he could until Sam elbowed him to keep still.

“I don’t see you complaining,” Sam murmured quietly and Gabriel smiled gently. 

“I’ve grown accustomed to sleeping beside you these past few days. If this really is a dream, what does it matter anyhow?” He admitted and Sam’s lips quirked upwards as he returned his attention to the photograph.

The pair stared at the picture for a long few minutes before Gabriel gingerly slid his arms around Sam’s middle and closed his eyes. Sam observed the archangel in surprise for a few moments before finally conceding defeat with the picture and placing it on the bedside table before turning the lamp off. Then, he rolled onto his side and carefully tugged Gabriel into his arms.

The archangel tightened his grip and pressed his face into Sam’s chest and Sam pushed his nose into Gabriel’s hair, holding him close.

“What if this isn’t a dream?” Sam whispered into the darkness.

“…Then I’m one lucky angel,” Gabriel breathed and Sam couldn’t stop himself from pressing his lips to Gabriel’s head. The archangel brushed his lips against Sam’s collar bone and now, more than ever, Sam felt his heart ache in longing for Gabriel.

They fell asleep in each other’s arms.

 

* * *

 

The next morning was surprisingly lazy and relaxed. They took their time with breakfast and their morning routines and tumbled into Castiel’s Lincoln some time after lunch. Dean complained a little about how the car was still just as ugly in their dream as it was in real life and Castiel pouted like he always did when someone insulted his car.

They drove for a couple of hours and soon came to the winding road and miles of woodland that marked the way to the Walters' ranch. The huge house soon faded into view, as did the fifteen horses meandering around the fields and they pulled up directly outside the front door, unwilling to walk any further than they had to after the week they’d suffered through.

Dean smiled as he jammed the Lincoln into park because he could see the Impala peeking out from behind an overgrown bush a little further down the drive, exactly where he’d left her in the real world. At least he wouldn’t have to drive the Lincoln home as well.

Forgoing the usual FBI suits (this was only a dream afterall), Dean banged on the door, rolling his eyes at his brother because this was all Sam’s idea. They could’ve been back at home with their girls, but no, Sam wasn’t convinced this was a dream because of a stupid picture the djinns had created to fool him.

After a few minutes of no reply, Dean scowled and banged harder. Once again, nobody jumped up to greet them.

Dean shook his head impatiently and eyed the mustard-coloured Lincoln in distaste.

“C’mon, Sam. Let’s go. They’re clearly not in and I doubt they even exist in this world. You’re not gonna learn anything from here.”

Sam shot his brother a filthy glare as Cas heard a strange shuffling noise from around the corner of the house. Curious, the angel broke away from his friends and rounded the other side of the house.

He froze when he spotted a pair of legs poking out from behind another corner of the house. They were soon dragged along the floor and vanished out of sight.

Slowly, he crept towards where they'd lay and peeked around the wall to find two sisters shoving an unconscious man into the back of a van, his arms bound and mouth gagged. Inside the van, Castiel could clearly see the shape of a woman in a similar state.

Mr and Mrs Walters.

He gasped involuntarily and had to duck behind the wall when one of the sisters – no, one of the djinns – whirled sharply to face the spot he’d just been standing in. He took a moment to compose himself before turning away from the scene of the crime. With wide eyes, Castiel slid to the front of the house and gestured desperately for Sam, Dean and Gabriel to follow him.

When he turned to make his way back to the van, he let out a surprised yelp.

A pair of bright blue eyes framed in a tattooed face narrowed in anger at him and he heard both Winchesters and Gabriel shout in alarm at him as the djinn reached out to grasp his throat. He threw his fist at the creature automatically and it stumbled as he scrabbled backwards out of its reach. 

It bared its teeth at him before lunging and Dean quickly kicked out at its stomach as he dragged Castiel away.

With adrenaline pumping through their veins, thoughts of this world being a dream vanished and instinct took over as Sam yelled out. “Lamb’s blood!”

They sprinted towards the Impala and their hearts sunk at the realisation they didn’t possess her keys. They skidded to a stop at her rear and Dean frowned because his Baby was filthy and looked like she hadn’t been touched in months.

The djinn was hot on their heels and Dean banged on the boot a few times, hoping by some miracle it would open, but when it didn’t, he was forced to grab a small rock from the ground and ram it against the lock.

The lock protested and eventually groaned in defeat and the boot flung open, revealing the myriad of weapons inside, including the silver blades coated with useless dried lamb’s blood.

The djinn was suddenly on them quicker than they were able to grab the weapons and Dean tumbled to the floor with a pained cry as the monster clawed at his face. He kicked out but the creature held fast and the pair grappled for a few moments until Sam threw the creature off his brother as Castiel and Gabriel frantically searched for the jar of liquid blood.

The djinn snarled and slammed its fist into Sam’s face and he stumbled backwards as Dean leapt to his feet and attempted to force the creature into a headlock. The djinn was far more powerful though, and it easily evaded Dean and threw him to the floor once more. Sam charged at the creature, but it growled and wrapped a hand around his neck, squeezing until Sam was scrabbling at its arm and gasping for air.

Two bloodied blades suddenly ripped through the djinn’s chest and the creature screamed in agony as it dropped Sam and scrambled wildly at its own chest. Blue light flashed behind its eyes and after one more haunting screech, the djinn slumped to the floor, lifeless.

Eyes wide and panicked, the angels and hunters stared at the dead djinn, not quite comprehending how quickly the situation had spiralled out of control.

Castiel and Gabriel carefully tugged Sam and Dean to their feet and they stared at each other in shock for a few moments.

Suddenly, their minds cleared a little and they frowned to themselves, wondering why the air seemed sharper, cooler all of a sudden. 

There was a bitter taste in their mouths and they noticed the blood spatters painting the ground. The wind whistled between the trees and they could hear the rustle of leaves and soft clopping of the horses’ hooves as they ambled around.

They noticed the tiny details in their surroundings and Dean shifted uncomfortably because he wasn’t convinced this was a dream anymore; there was far too much going on around them; too many sounds and sights and smells. How hadn’t he noticed that before?

And why would the djinns put themselves into a fabricated world? Wouldn’t that increase the chances of their victims remembering their real lives?

…Wait a minute… hadn’t he and Sam and Cas and Gabe always been able to remember their own lives? Even seconds after waking up? 

…But… here, Sam was with Gabe and Dean was with Cas… that… that couldn’t be right. They had girlfriends. How come they could remember their old lives with their girlfriends, yet it didn’t seem like they existed here? This… this had to be a dream… right?

How long had they been dreaming for?

Castiel’s voice snapped everyone out of their puzzled musings.

“Wait… wasn’t there supposed to be two djinns?”

The others blinked at each other and their eyes widened in realisation. 

Then a tattooed hand grasped Castiel by the throat.


	6. Day 7 and onwards?

“So, how did you escape?” Gasped Jessica, eyes wide as she passed the salsa to Gabriel.

“Just as the thing tried to strangle Cas, Gabe rammed his blade into its back,” said Dean, folding his tortilla and smiling at his perfect fajita. It was a relief to be back home with the girls and Ben, safe and sound in the dining hall of the bunker. 

“And then you drove home and got ambushed by all of us,” drawled Meg. 

“Well, they were gone a long time,” said Lisa, still looking a little anxious as she turned to Dean. “For a while, I thought I’d never see you again.”

Dean grasped her hand gently and ran his thumb over her knuckles soothingly.

“Well, we’re here now and we ain’t going anywhere,” he reassured and she smiled at him and tangled their fingers together.

“Good,” she murmured softly.

“Funny thing is,” began Sam with a light frown, “I can’t remember any of my dream. Like, I remember going out to the ranch and running into the djinns, but then… nothing. Next thing I remember is Gabe and Cas taking them both out.”

Meg shook her head. “It’s probably for the best anyway. Djinns are tricky creatures. Their strange worlds may have messed with your heads had you still been able to remember them. At least there are no doubts about reality if you can’t remember the made up one.”

Sam nodded in agreement and took a bite of his fajita. He groaned softly in approval; Dean was such a great chef.

Jess giggled beside him and offered him a napkin for the sauce that was dribbling down his jaw.

“How long were we gone, anyway?” Asked Dean and Jess gazed at him, troubled.

“Four months,” she said and the four men blinked in shock at that. They’d taken the case in November.

“You missed Christmas,” murmured Lisa quietly, sadly and Dean squeezed her hand a little tighter.

“Well, the djinns are dead and that means we don’t have to worry about them anymore. How about we take a little break from hunting, hm? Spend some time at home?” He glanced at Sam and his brother nodded enthusiastically before turning his sappy smile to Jessica, who wrapped her arms around him in relief.

“Good,” hummed Meg, drawing Cas in for a messy kiss. “I’ve missed my unicorn.”

When they pulled apart, Dean shuddered as Sam rolled his eyes and Gabriel gagged. They missed the puzzled look that flashed over Castiel’s face and the way his mouth drew into a thin line of distaste for a brief moment before it returned to a neutral expression.

Dinner went over well and that evening, the group chose to watch a movie and have a ‘family night in’ after all they’d suffered through.

They came across a film about angels titled _‘Legion’_ and Dean searched up the reviews on his phone to see if it was any good. After reading some of the reviews aloud (not that great) they decided to watch the movie for comedic value and that was when Dean noticed the date on his phone.

**23/05/2017.**

Dean paused and frowned at the date for a moment before casting his confused gaze to Jessica.

“…How long did you say we were gone for?”

Jessica tilted her head at him, hesitating for a moment before frowning.

“Six months, why?”

Sam blinked and turned to his girlfriend in confusion as Dean opened his mouth and quickly closed it again, puzzled.

“…Six? I thought you said four,” Sam said and Jessica paused again before turning in Sam’s arms to gaze at him.

“Maybe I said four by accident? I meant six,” she replied and Sam frowned.

“…We’ve been gone six months and you… didn’t remember?” He sounded hurt and Jess was quick to placate him, cupping his face between her hands with an apologetic puppy-dog expression.

“Of course I remembered! It was the worst six months of my life, baby. It was just a slip of the tongue.” 

He smiled hesitantly at her and she kissed his lips sweetly before settling back down on his chest to watch the film. 

Sam lay frozen. The kiss felt off; wrong in a way he didn’t understand. Like a betrayal.

Castiel watched his reaction carefully and when their gazes met, Sam swore he saw a similar expression behind Castiel’s eyes. Like something was wrong.

Sam’s arms loosened their grip around Jessica and she didn’t seem to notice.

 

* * *

 

“Not tonight, Kali,” mumbled Gabriel as Kali’s hand slithered down his front and reached lower and lower until he pushed it away.

“C’mon, Archangel,” she purred enticingly in a way that no other being would have been able to resist. “We can do it right here in the library if you want. Everyone else is in bed.” She closed the book he was reading and tossed it to the floor before perching in his lap.

“No, Kali. Not tonight,” huffed Gabriel, leaning backwards when she tried to ravish his mouth. Over the past four days, he’d begun to avoid contact with her more and more. Kissing her left a bitter taste in his mouth and after that first round of sex with her, he’d sat in the bathroom for two hours and felt like someone had ripped out his heart and stomped all over it whilst simultaneously feeling like he’d ripped out someone else’s.

Now, he could barely stand to be in the same room as her.

Their relationship had always had its faults, but never this severe and what was worse was he was the one putting up barriers between them, not the other way around. He was causing their relationship to break down and there was nothing he could do about it.

“I miss you, Archangel,” she pouted and Gabriel grimaced because he hated her pet name for him and the way she said it. It made his skin crawl.

“I’m… tired,” he lied and suddenly, Kali scowled and shoved harshly at his shoulders.

“Liar,” she hissed as she stood. “You’re an angel; you don’t get tired. You’re creating excuses to avoid me.”

Gabriel’s mouth drew downwards as he glanced up at her. “If you want sex so badly, go pick some human or monster or demigod up from somewhere. I know you find it easy.”

Kali narrowed her eyes. “Are you jealous? Surely you don’t expect us to become exclusive?”

Gabriel shuddered at the thought. He couldn’t imagine being in a fully committed, monogamous relationship with Kali.

“Of course not. I’m just not in the mood for sex, that’s all.”

Kali clenched her fists. She’d always been hot-tempered. “So what? I’m not good enough for you anymore? Have you found someone more interesting?”

“No!” Protested Gabriel, patience wearing thin because Kali always seemed to bring out the worst in him. “I just don’t want sex tonight!”

“You always desire sex!” She hissed at him, flames dancing behind her eyes and smoke beginning to rise from her clenched fists. “So obviously you have a problem with me!”

Gabriel’s eyes glowed golden with fury. He wasn’t sure why, but the whole conversation irritated him and Kali’s attempts to seduce him were strangely offensive.

“Maybe I’m tired of having a relationship based entirely on sex!” He snapped and Kali snorted condescendingly.

“I thought we were both clear on what this relationship entailed. I don’t do romantic and I’m not sure I approve of you growing soft of all of a sudden.”

“I’m not going soft,” Gabriel grated out. “But it would be nice to have a partner who cares about me.”

Kali scoffed and turned her nose up in disgust. “I knew starting a relationship with an angel would result in this. Your kind are far too emotional. You don’t know how to have fun.”

Gabriel’s wings spanned wide on a plane humans couldn’t see, but Kali backed up a little at their intimidating size. They only puffed out like this when the archangel was truly angry.

“Watch it, Kali. I’m not in the mood for another demigod versus angel debate,” he warned and Kali narrowed her eyes once more before huffing and stalking away.

“I suppose I’ll just have to summon Odin and Zeus,” she called over her shoulder. “They’re always ready for a party.”

Gabriel growled at her retreating figure and once she disappeared, he slumped back into his chair and scrubbed a hand down his face, feeling oddly relieved he wouldn’t have to talk to Kali for the rest of the night. 

 

* * *

 

Cracks were beginning to show in all of their relationships. The odd thing was the girls didn’t seem to notice; continuing as if they couldn’t sense the tension in their partners or the way they dodged affection or any kind of contact from their girlfriends. It was almost as though they were ignoring it.

The four men couldn’t even chat to Ben without feeling off.

It had been a week since their return and as time progressed, the four men grew steadily more uncomfortable with their partners, seeking out each other’s company more often than not even if they refused to discuss their disturbing thoughts with one another.

Castiel was somewhere in Norway, sat atop a mountain and watching the waves drift in and out of the rocky beach. It was cold up here but he couldn’t feel it. He’d needed to get away from Meg; had needed to hide himself away for a little while to clear his head. The bunker was making his mind thick with confusing thoughts and doubts and he’d come to Flåm to focus and work things out.

Everything felt wrong, even here, away from humans and the chaos of the world; something wasn’t right. 

He wanted to keep away from Meg; to avoid her flirtatious smirks and suggestive touches. He found her scent nauseating and her blackened soul was repulsive. He hated when her eyes slid to black and when he could see her true body, beneath that of the vessel’s, he was disgusted at himself for letting her touch him.

It suddenly hit him that he was no longer in love with her and that thought knocked him off balance for a moment because when had _that_ happened? Why was he suddenly bothered by all these things? He thought he’d moved past all his angel programming and all the ‘rules’ he was expected to follow; was he moving backwards? Was he becoming more judgemental and prejudiced?

He scowled at himself in disapproval and tried to convince himself that Meg, despite being a demon, was a wonderful person who’d helped him and the Winchesters on countless occasions.

It didn’t help. He still shuddered at the image of her in his mind.

He wondered what Dean would think of him if he knew how shallow Castiel was being. Then he frowned and wondered why he was thinking of Dean at a time like this.

He looked over the dancing waves again and his mind began to wander.

He thought of Dean and all they’d been through; how the hunter’s trust in him had grown over the years and how they’d become close friends despite their rocky first meeting. He thought about how Dean had saved him time and time again, never giving up on him even when Castiel gave up on himself and he smiled because how many other people would do that for someone? How many people would risk their lives to save another? 

Dean was loyal and kind and his soul was the purest Castiel had ever seen. 

And his body was pretty easy on the eyes too.

Castiel shook his head and tried to think about something else. Those sorts of thoughts had become more frequent during the past week and Castiel didn’t understand why. Why was he admiring Dean’s body and personality all of a sudden?

With a soft sigh he glanced over the little town below him and tried to cleanse his mind of strange thoughts.

He frowned.

There were no people in the town below him.

Tilting his head, he tried to catch a glimpse of the surrounding towns and found there were no people there either. Sitting a little straighter, he realised there were no animals around; no bird songs or insects buzzing. There were trees but no rustling of leaves; no gentle breeze to make the grass sway. There weren’t even any scents wafting from the surrounding trees and flowers. 

The air was stagnant and his surroundings lifeless.

Cas slowly climbed to his feet, brows furrowed in confusion as his gaze swept over the towns and rolling hills once more. Everything was silent. Eerie.

Mouth drawing into a thin line, Castiel quickly spread his wings and took off. Norway was beginning to creep him out.

 

* * *

 

Dean avoided yet another sweet kiss from Lisa as he pretended to research a case from a local newspaper. The truth was there was only one death described of in the paper and that was due to a three-car collision; not exactly case material, but Lisa didn’t know that.

As she leaned over to kiss his cheek, he turned his head the opposite way, as if reading the other page and if Lisa had figured out his aversion to her affection, she wasn’t speaking up.

It had been eleven days since their return and something was clearly wrong with all of them. Dean knew it wasn’t just him who felt uncomfortable every time his girlfriend tried to get close to him; he’d seen the little frowns from Sam and he’d noticed how much time Cas spent away from the bunker now. Gabriel and Kali had even broken up. Again.

And it wasn’t just their own girlfriends they were uncomfortable with.

Whenever Dean saw Meg flirting with or touching Cas, he would feel himself getting grumpier and snappier with the demon without having any right to. His heart would hurt and he would grow short-tempered for no reason.

He’d noticed Gabriel’s scowls every time Jess tried to get close to Sam. The archangel would huff and look as though he wanted to stomp over and steal Sam’s attention away from her. Sometimes, Sam noticed and he would use Gabriel as an excuse to get away from Jessica; explaining they had something to discuss or he had a question for the archangel. Those times, Gabriel would smirk and puff his chest out slightly in triumph as he eyed Jessica smugly without the poor woman knowing what she had done wrong.

Dean was pretty certain he’d caught Cas behaving in a similar way whenever Lisa was in the room.

It was rather concerning.

“Hey, I was just wondering if you still had those pictures of me teaching yoga?” Hummed Lisa as she hoisted her gym bag over her shoulder. “The school is asking for a few ‘action shots’ for the new website and the ones you took weren’t bad quality.”

Dean grimaced at the reminder of those photos. It wasn’t that there was anything wrong with them; it was the thought that he’d taken them because he’d thought Lisa looked hot with all those tight yoga clothes clinging to her body and showing off her curves and muscles. Now, the thought of seeing Lisa in that thin outfit again made him a little nauseous.

Which was very unlike him.

“Uh… yeah. I think I still have them,” mumbled Dean, whipping out his phone and searching for the pictures. How many photos of Lisa did he have on this thing? He scrolled past them quickly.

Then he paused. Because this photo wasn’t of Lisa and he certainly didn’t remember taking it.

Lisa saw his shocked expression and the way his thumb had frozen over the screen and she frowned slightly, taking a step closer.

“…Dean? Did you find them?” She crept forwards and tried to peek at his screen.

Dean’s gaze suddenly snapped up to her and he locked the phone as he forced a smile.

“Yeah. I’ll just work out how to send them to you,” he said, a little tightly and Lisa smiled, satisfied.

“Just email them,” she grinned before pecking him on the head (ignoring his shudder) and leaving for work.

Once he was certain she was gone, he unlocked his phone and stared at the photo once more, trying to work out why it seemed so familiar without possibly being real.

There, right before his eyes, was a picture of Sam and Gabriel in the bunker’s library; Sam holding the archangel as Gabriel pointed something out in the book they were reading. They looked happy together; cosy and relaxed.

When had he taken that picture? Since when did Gabriel and Sam… snuggle?

Why did the idea of Sam and Gabriel being together seem more natural than Sam and Jessica?

Dean placed his phone on the desk and rubbed at his eyes. Was he seeing things?

One more glance at the phone told him he wasn’t. He picked it up gingerly once more and stared at it for a few minutes. Was it one of Gabriel’s pranks? It didn’t seem like much of a joke.

Bewildered, Dean decided to take the image to Sam. Maybe his brother knew something about it?

He pocketed the device and made his way into the living area, where he knew his brother would be scouring the internet in an attempt to distract himself from his strange aversion to Jess.

He plopped down on the couch beside his brother and scrutinised the side of his face for a moment until he turned to Dean with an irritated “What?”

Dean shoved the phone in front of his face.

Sam’s eyes blew wide as he stared at the picture and Dean knew immediately that Sam was just as confused as he was.

“How did you…? What is this?” Demanded Sam, frowning at his brother as he snatched the phone from his grip. “Dean, what is this supposed to be? Did you make this?”

Dean scrunched his nose up in distaste. “Why would I make something like that? I found it in my photos and was wondering if you could give me an explanation.”

“…About why you have a weirdly intimate image of me and Gabriel cuddling on your phone? No, funnily enough I can’t explain that,” huffed Sam but he refused to return the device, opting to stare at it for a little longer.

Dean scowled. “Well, it got on there somehow.”

“Have you asked Gabe? Could be a prank,” murmured Sam but he seemed far away, lost in a whirlwind of contemplation and confusion. He gently ran his thumb around the edges of the photo.

“That’s what I was thinking,” replied Dean carefully, watching his brother’s face for any spark of recognition or epiphany. “Thought I’d ask you first though.”

Sam grunted something in agreement before focusing all his attention on the phone.

“…I’ve seen this picture before,” he mumbled quietly, brows furrowed in concentration. “I can’t remember where but… it’s… I recognise this picture. I just can’t remember why…”

“You two watching porn or something?” Quipped a new voice and Dean glanced up to find Gabriel leaning in the doorway, one eyebrow quirked in amusement. “Mind if I join in?” He winked.

“Hey, could you take a look at this?” Dean asked, ignoring the archangel’s comments. “Sam thinks he’s seen this picture before.” He glanced up to the archangel sharply. “Unless you’ve been messing with my phone?”

Gabriel looked surprised and he shook his head in the negative as he wandered over.

“I’ve not been doing anything to your phone, Dean-o. Now what’s all this fuss about?” He leaned over the back of the couch to squint at the photo and instantly, his brow creased and his lips turned downwards.

Dean waited for a few moments but when the archangel remained silent, he tilted his head.

“Do you recognise it?”

“…I… I don’t understand… where did…” Gabriel trailed off as he concentrated on the image and Dean watched as Sam slowly cast his gaze to the archangel, a strange look passing over his features that Dean couldn’t quite identify.

Then there was a yelp from the kitchen and the sound of a fire alarm echoed through the bunker.

Dean swore and leapt to his feet before sprinting into the kitchen to find Jess swatting at a pan fire with a damp towel. 

The flames suddenly flared, hissing and spitting angrily and Jess jumped backwards. Dean vacated the room for a moment and returned with a fire extinguisher, quickly vanquishing the wild fire. 

The smoke lingered for a few moments and Jess coughed roughly as Dean guided everyone from the room. Castiel, Meg, Lisa and Ben were quick to appear, curious as to why the fire alarms were blaring. With a snap of his fingers, Gabriel cut them off.

“Is everything okay?” Asked Lisa, panicked and Jess smiled sheepishly. 

“I was making pancakes and I guess I lost focus for a moment there. The batter caught fire.”

Lisa released a sigh of relief as Meg rolled her eyes, probably disappointed someone hadn’t been engulfed in flames or something equally as sadistic.

Dean scrubbed a hand down his face. “Well, no one was hurt at least,” he muttered. He glanced sternly at Jess. “Try to pay a little more attention next time?”

Jess looked away embarrassedly.

Sam looked as though he’d seen a ghost.

He stood frozen, staring wide-eyed at Jessica, face pale and expression haunted.

“…You burned,” he whispered, voice full of shock and realisation and maybe a hint of fear.

Jess tilted her head as the other turned to stare at Sam in surprise.

“…No, I’m fine, Sam. See?” She held out her arms for him to gaze upon. “No burns. Dean put out the fire before it could catch me.” She smiled at the older Winchester gratefully.

Sam shook his head violently and gulped. “You’re not real,” he choked out, voice hoarse with emotion. “You can’t be.”

A small frown creased Jess’ brows. “…Of course I’m real, Sam. What’s wrong? Are you sick?”

She reached out to touch his forehead and he stumbled backwards, away from her.

“You can’t be real,” he insisted, swallowing thickly. “…Because you died thirteen years ago.”

A tiny spark of irritation flickered behind Jessica’s gaze and Dean paused because that wasn’t the reaction he’d been expecting. He turned to Sam in confusion; something about his brother’s words sounded familiar…

“Sam… you’re scaring me,” said Jessica, taking a step towards him. “I’m right here.”

Sam shook his head frantically and backed up once more. “You’re dead,” he pleaded. “Azazel… you burned on the ceiling… we were in college…”

Dean’s eyes widened. He remembered that night. How could he have forgotten? He’d had to drag Sam out of their house to save him.

…Which meant that Jessica couldn’t be alive… she couldn’t possibly be standing in front of them. So how were they talking to her?

Jessica frowned deeper and Dean was confused when the other girls seemed to glare at Sam in anger. Their expressions soon faded and they turned to Cas and Gabe.

“Is he okay?” Asked Jessica, staring at Castiel. “Has he got a fever?”

Castiel frowned at her distrustingly before slowly inching towards Sam and raising a hand to his head. Then his eyes rounded and his hand paused in mid-air as he cast his gaze to Meg.

“You… can’t be here,” he said slowly, squinting hard and trying to remember why that was. He racked his brain for the memories that were just out of reach.

Meg looked stunned and she opened her mouth to say something when the epiphany suddenly struck Castiel.

“Hellhounds,” he breathed and Meg froze, glancing between all four men’s faces and scowling when Dean and Sam’s eyes bugged in realisation. Gabriel still looked a little puzzled and the girls immediately latched onto it.

“Gabriel, what’s going on? Why are they acting so weird?” Whimpered Lisa, sounding afraid. “Did something happen when you were caught by those djinns?”

Gabriel hesitated, gazing into her warm chocolate eyes and turned to his brother and the Winchesters helplessly. He didn’t understand what Hellhounds had to do with Meg.

Castiel shook his head desperately. “This can’t be right,” he whispered and if his little brother said something was wrong then Gabriel would support him. Besides, something about Jess burning sounded familiar…

Lisa’s face fell when she noticed Gabriel refused to take her side and she turned to Dean instead.

“Baby, what’s going on?” She begged. “I thought… I thought we were happy?”

“Dean?” Ben asked, tears collecting in his eyes and Dean’s heart broke. He took a step forwards but paused when something tugged at the corners of his mind; urgent and frantic.

“Dean, please,” whimpered Lisa but Dean shook his head and backed away. The memories were foggy but they were too detailed to be a dream.

“You don’t remember me,” he mumbled to himself with a small frown and Lisa’s eyes widened.

“Of course we remember you,” she hurried out. “We’re here, aren’t we? We’re in a relationship!”

Suddenly, it was like a dam shattered in Dean’s mind.

“We _were_ in a relationship,” he corrected. “Before I asked Cas to wipe your memories. You can’t possibly remember me, or any of us.”

Cas blinked as his memories became clearer and Dean scowled at Lisa before taking in all three girls and Ben.

“This isn’t real. It can’t be.”

“We’re still in the dream,” breathed Sam. “We never got out.”

“The djinns altered our memories so it appeared as though we escaped,” surmised Cas. 

“What are you talking about?” Cried Jess in frustration. “You said you killed the djinns! How can this be a dream?”

Dean smirked bitterly. “You said we’d been gone for four months. My phone said six. The djinns forgot to alter all the details to make them match up.”

“That’s why there were no humans inhabiting Norway,” Cas said suddenly. “The djinns have only created the details they think we’ll need. It would drain too much energy to create a replica of the entire world. That’s why they skip certain smells and sounds; they’ve deemed them unnecessary.”

“So, we must have completely different lives somewhere else,” murmured Sam, glancing at Dean’s phone. “That’s why it feels wrong when the girls kiss us.” He slowly cast his gaze to Gabriel when he realised what that implied and the archangel stared back in surprise and maybe a little bit of delight.

“Do you realised how ridiculous you sound?” Huffed Meg, but she sounded angry at them and the rest of the girls looked oddly furious with their eyes narrowed and lips drawn into thin lines. Even Ben looked aggravated with his arms crossed.

“And of course you’d be angry because you’re a direct projection of what the djinns are thinking,” snorted Sam. “You’re like puppets being used to manipulate us; to trick us into believing this is all real. Your job is to make us stay here forever. If you’re annoyed, so are the djinns.”

“This sounds absurd!” Hissed Lisa. “Are you really insinuating we’re all dead or don’t recognise you? Sam, you’ve been with Jess for sixteen years! You got together in college and when you both graduated, you moved into the bunker. Dean met me five years later when I was being hit on by some creep at the bar who wouldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer. He took me out for a drink and we realised we had a lot in common. Cas, you hated Meg at first, then she started flirting with you and you got curious. Next thing we know, you’re using tricks you learned from the Pizza Man. And Gabriel, you’ve been on and off with Kali since before my grandmother was born!”

Cas and Dean ducked their heads a little, feeling guilty and torn between logic and their muddled memories, but Sam scowled and crossed his arms.

“Exactly. I’ve been with Jess for sixteen years without proposing to her. Doesn’t that sound a little odd to you?”

“…We don’t have the money,” reasoned Jessica but Sam shook his head.

“We don’t have the money to sign the papers? We might not be able to afford a fancy wedding, but we can sign the certificate. Why haven’t we?”

“…I wasn’t sure you wanted to,” mumbled Jess but Sam smiled hollowly.

“After sixteen years, you’re not sure if I want to marry you?”

Jessica snapped her mouth shut and Gabriel arched an eyebrow as he stared hard at Lisa.

“Kali and I have been more off than on and I’m beginning to wonder why we keep coming back to each other. We have nothing in common and we don’t particularly like each other. Now that I think about it, it seems more of a way to tie me down.”

“I’m thrilled you regard me so highly,” snapped a new voice and Gabriel stiffened and turned to face the goddess.

“How were Odin and Zeus?” He snarked and Kali smirked sharply at him.

“Better than you’ve been this past week. I’ve had fun.”

“So why come back?” Snapped Gabriel and Kali clamped her mouth shut, a deep scowl appearing on her face. Gabriel chuckled.

“Because you have to keep me here somehow, right? If I’m free, I might start noticing things aren’t quite right in this world. It takes too much energy for the djinns to create new sections of the universe so we all have to stay together as much as possible so nobody notices anything out of the ordinary.”

Kali narrowed her eyes and Gabriel’s lips curled upwards.

“Did I get all that correct, _Honey_?”

Kali clenched her fists and Gabriel shook his head as another memory made itself known.

“Didn’t you try to stab me once you realised I was an archangel? Wow… how did I forget that? You truly hate me; how could I have ever believed we could get together once you knew my secret?”

“We’ve got to get out of here,” said Sam. “Who knows how long we’ve been trapped in this world for?”

“We could be about to die,” agreed Dean. “We need to wake up.”

“You could have been happy here,” whispered Lisa as she gazed at Dean sadly. “You could’ve lived a long life here with us; you wouldn’t have had to worry about dying on a hunt because the djinn would have made sure you lived until old age.”

“You can still do that,” said Jessica, eyes pleading. “You can still stay here. You don’t have to wake up. You can live out your lives here. You can have a family. Why would you want to give that up?”

Sam gazed at the picture on Dean’s phone.

“Because we already have a family,” he murmured. “We already have happy lives and we don’t want to give them up.” He glanced over to Gabriel and when the archangel smiled fondly at him, a memory of them sharing their first kiss under a sprig of mistletoe suddenly flashed in Sam’s mind. His heart ached in longing. He wanted his old life with Gabriel back, even if he couldn’t really remember it. Everything about this place seemed wrong but when he looked at Gabriel… it was like his body knew where it belonged even if his brain had no idea what was real and what wasn’t.

“How do you know they’re happy lives if you can’t remember them?” Demanded Meg and Dean shook his head slowly as an image of black feathers popped into his head.

“…We don’t,” he admitted quietly before slowly glancing at Castiel. “But… we’re willing to take the chance.” 

Cas smiled in approval and Dean’s heart fluttered. 

That decided it. Cas was his and he wanted his own life back.

Dean quickly turned to Sam. “You convinced this one’s a dream?”

The comment startled a laugh out of Sam; it was strangely familiar. “Yeah.”

“Awesome,” Dean grinned before turning to the angels. “Suicide or homicide?”

“Suicide,” they both answered in unison, summoning their blades.

Dean glanced at Sam to find his brother had already pulled Ruby’s knife from his pocket and the older Winchester smirked and tugged his gun out of its permanent residence from the holster on his belt. Some called him paranoid; Dean liked to think he was just prepared.

“One,” began Dean, raising the gun to his head as Sam held the blade against his throat. The womens' eyes widened in shock.

“Two,” the younger Winchester said, ignoring the frantic yelling and protesting of the girls and Ben.

“Three,” said Dean as their girlfriends charged at them, determined to stop them and steal their weapons.

But it was already too late.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...I'm really bad at guessing how many chapters there'll be. Okay so there's ONE more and I definitely know that because I've almost finished writing it! I swear I will finish this fic at some point! ;)


	7. Day 1, Take 2

Dean gasped in desperate lungfulls of air as he shot upright, eyes wide and panicked.

He glanced around frantically to see Sam, Cas and Gabe looking just as bewildered as they stared at one another. With dread bubbling in their guts, they glanced at the shackles around their wrists and the darkness of the barn they were held captive in and a sense of déjà vu washed over them. They snapped their gazes back to one another in horror as memories of them waking up in a similar situation barrelled into their minds.

Gabriel gave an experimental tug at the shackles and they broke immediately, just like they had the first time.

No warding.

He gulped and stared at Cas as the seraph gazed at his own broken shackles in mortification.

This couldn’t be happening again. Was this real or another one of the djinns’ tricks?

Suddenly, there was an agonised scream from just outside the barn and a flash of blue light that glowed between the slats of the barn walls and Gabriel snapped his fingers to free Sam and Dean, grimacing when he felt his weak grace protest.

They crept warily towards the doors and nudged one open.

Slumped over the grass lay a very dead djinn; a silver blade coated in lamb’s blood shoved into her chest. 

Puzzled, the four slipped out of the barn to inspect the djinn.

“About time you four morons woke up,” drawled a familiar voice and they whirled around to find Crowley leaning casually against the barn, arms crossed and eyes narrowed. “I do hope you’ve had a good rest. You’ve been sleeping for seven months.”

Their eyes widened, mouths falling open as the demon sauntered over to the dead djinn and tugged the blade from her chest. He pulled a face at the blood dripping from it.

“Wait… how do we know this is real?” Scowled Sam. “How do we know you’re not just part of a dream and the djinns still have us trapped?”

“Djinn. Singular,” supplied Crowley disinterestedly. “You’ve already killed one of them. That’s the second,” he nodded at the deceased monster on the grass.

Sam blinked as he remembered Lisa’s words.

_‘You wouldn’t have had to worry about dying on a hunt because the djinn would have made sure you live until old age.’_

_Djinn._ Singular. He hadn’t thought anything of it at the time, but if what Crowley was saying was true, then it made sense.

“Also, if this was a dream, would you be able to remember your lives with Jess, Lisa, Ben, Meg and Kali?” Hummed Crowley and Dean scowled suspiciously.

“How do you know who our dreams included?” If Crowley was part of the dream, he would know who the four had been in relationships with.

Crowley rolled his eyes. “Because I’m the one who put them there.”

The four paused, tilting their heads or frowning in confusion.

Crowley suddenly looked frustrated as he moved away from the wall.

“Do you realise how long I’ve been trying to wake you bumbling idiots?” He growled. “I thought you might have noticed my interference, but apparently you didn’t and I kept having to hide from those damn djinns every time they noticed I was meddling with your dreams!”

He shook his head. “I thought putting you with dead, amnesiac or hated girlfriends of the past might have jogged something in those thick skulls of yours, but apparently you were happy to go along with the ride.”

“…What are you talking about?” Demanded Sam. “The djinns are the ones who created the dreams for us, not you.”

Crowley snorted. “Yes, they did. And with the dreams they created for you, I knew you’d never wake up! They’re supposed to create a world that means you’ll be happy and unwilling to leave. A _‘perfect life’_ , so to speak. After three months of you not waking up, I decided to sneak in to the barn and delve into your minds. Apparently, your ideas of ‘happy lives’ are hunting with each other and having hot sex on weekends. Basically, you’re so messed up that your idea of perfect lives are the lives you’re already living.” 

He rolled his eyes. “Which is great for the djinns because you couldn’t tell the difference between what was your own life and what wasn’t, and you didn’t seem to particularly care either. I knew if I wanted you to wake up, I had to change the dream a bit. So, I made it where instead of getting off with each other, you got off with ex-girlfriends.”

He scowled. “How was I supposed to know you’d be too stupid to notice that was a dream too? Plan B was to send in a Hellhound to scare the djinns and make them lose concentration, that way you’d wake up in the real world and hopefully have time to escape their clutches. And at first, you did. Granted, you seemed a little confused that the djinns had dragged you to Idaho to hide you away from prying eyes and in hindsight, I guess that might be one of the reasons you thought you were still in the dream, but then you idiots decided to get captured again!” 

Crowley threw his hands up in frustration. “I mean come on! Are you really that stupid? I’m just glad you were able to kill one of the things before you got sucked back into the dream. It made the other one less able to hold the dream together and I’m guessing she started slipping up in the details and you couldn’t possibly be dim enough to notice those sorts of mistakes. I’m sure that’s why you woke up just now. Took you long enough. Thought I’d better kill this thing before it caught you again.” He glanced over their skinny, dishevelled bodies and turned his nose up in disdain. “Not sure you would’ve lasted much longer.”

The four gaped at him.

“Why on Earth would you want to save us?” Asked Dean after two minutes of solid silence, during which Crowley had been prodding at the djinn with his foot for lack of anything better to do. He suddenly glared at Dean.

“Because, in case you got your tiny brain blended into a smoothie during that dream, Lucifer’s spawn is about to be set free into the world and I for one, don’t want to see the destruction of everything that ever was and is!”

The four blinked. Kelly; they’d forgotten about her. How could they have forgotten about the woman who was about to birth Lucifer’s offspring? They needed to find her before it was too late and Lucifer got his paws on the nephilim.

Crowley stared at them in exasperation as memories of their real lives came flooding back; Cas absorbing the leviathans, purgatory, Dean becoming a demon, Sam being possessed by Gadreel, Amara, Cas being possessed by Lucifer, Gabriel’s fury at Lucifer, The British Men of Letters, Mary’s return…

They staggered backwards at the force of the memories’ return and closed their eyes to help them focus. Everything was fighting for their attention and they nearly groaned at how clear and sharp the images were. How could they have possibly believed the other world was real when everything in their own world was so… detailed?

Even the air had a taste here.

“We have to find Kelly,” managed Sam finally, mind swimming with too many thoughts and Crowley rolled his eyes as if being around the Winchesters and their angels was physical torture.

“No. You’ve been unconscious for seven months, during which, two monsters have been feeding from you. First thing you’re going to do is go home and drink a gallon of water, eat, sleep and shower because you smell like you’ve been dead for six weeks.” He narrowed his eyes and jabbed a finger in their direction. “And you’re not going to leave the bunker for at least a week whilst you recover and the featherbrains regain some of their grace. You can’t exactly fight anything as powerful as Lucifer when you all have the strength of a flaccid asparagus.”

Sam pouted like a scolded child. “You can’t order us around,” he said petulantly and Crowley glared at him sternly.

“Don’t come running to me when you’re dead.”

Dean mulled that one over and decided not to comment.

Crowley made a face of disgust. “You really do need showers. Go on. Get lost. I don’t want that corpse scent clinging to my Armani. Tell Mummy I said hi.”

He waved his hand at them and they stumbled when they felt their feet leave the ground. Suddenly, they were back in the bunker, alone.

Dean glanced around warily. “So… uh… are we sure this is real? ‘Cos I’m not convinced I can tell the difference anymore.”

Gabriel sniffed at his underarms curiously and recoiled in disgust.

“Yeah… this is definitely real. That’s a lot of detail right there.” He groaned softly. “I don’t know about one shower, I think I might need ten.”

“First thing I need is a drink,” said Sam, grimacing at his parched throat and dry lips. “Or maybe a hose pipe.”

After a few nods of agreement, they trudged into the kitchen and chugged several glasses of water each. On approximately their fifth glass, Dean swirled his water around its container.

“Do you think Crowley was telling the truth?” He murmured. “About our ‘perfect lives’ in the dream? Do you really believe our lives were the same in the dream before Crowley changed it?”

“You mean, do you think we’re happy with what we’ve got?” Asked Sam quietly and at Dean’s slight nod, he glanced to Gabriel, assessing him for a moment before smiling small and secretive. “Maybe? Yeah. I think maybe we are happy.”

Dean’s lips quirked upwards before he raised an eyebrow at the angels. “What about you guys? You’re age-old celestial beings. How can you possibly be happy with crappy motels, tinned food, monster hunting and a couple of humans with bright red targets on their backs for every demon, abomination, angel and demigod out there?”

Both angels glanced at each other and seemed to come to a conclusion at the same time. Or maybe they had a telepathic connection and were actually conversing with one another; it was hard to tell with angels.

“You’re our humans,” shrugged Castiel.

“We chose you,” continued Gabriel. “So far, we’ve had no reason to regret our decision.”

“If anything, we’re proud of it,” finished Castiel and Dean’s brows drew together.

“…Was that… a roundabout way of you saying you love us?”

“Yes.”

“Yup.”

Dean grinned, gaze softening as he stared at Cas. “That was pretty sweet.”

Castiel straightened and Gabriel chuckled because his little brother was practically preening. 

“Kinda cliché that we’re all each other’s idea of a happy life,” mused Sam but he was smiling and Gabriel couldn’t wait to cuddle his lover after their showers. Afterall, they hadn’t kissed in seven months. Now that his memories of his relationship with the youngest Winchester had returned, he desperately needed to rectify that.

“We’re all saps,” Dean concluded as he dumped his glass in the sink. “I’m going for a shower. Crowley wasn’t kidding when he said we smell like corpses.”

Dean exited the kitchen and Sam and Gabriel bit back laughter when Castiel pottered after him like a loyal puppy. 

“A shower sounds like a good idea,” hummed Sam as he dropped his glass in the sink, Gabriel copying his movements and before long, all four men were washing the stink of seven months of barn-smell from their bodies.

 

* * *

 

Sam collapsed into bed and held back a grin when his door creaked open and someone stumbled around in the darkness, searching for the mattress.

The figure eventually found it and slipped under the covers with Sam and the younger Winchester dragged the new body close until they were practically wrapped around each other.

“Talk about déjà vu, huh?” Whispered Gabriel and Sam kissed his hair sweetly and held him tighter.

Gabriel suddenly clicked his fingers and the light flipped on.

“Oh no. You’re giving me a proper kiss. I’ve waited seven months for this,” he pouted and Sam knew this wasn’t a dream because his heart was beating wildly in his chest at the mere sight of the archangel.

Gabriel rolled Sam onto his back and the hunter put up no resistance, curling his hands around Gabriel’s waist as the angel settled above him. Gabriel cupped his cheek gently and they smiled at each other for a moment before their lips finally met and all Sam could think of was how right everything felt.

Gabriel sighed happily into his mouth and he knew he wasn’t the only one.

One of Sam’s hands slowly slid between the archangel’s shoulder blades, gently massaging the muscles beneath and Gabriel chuckled quietly because he knew what Sam wanted.

Three pairs of gorgeous golden wings shimmered into Sam’s plane of vision; obviously not Gabriel’s real wings (they would burn his eyes out) but wings Gabriel had created to take up the energy his real wings were composed of. They were huge and elegant and each feather looked like it had been handcrafted by an accomplished artist.

Sam immediately buried both hands into them and Gabriel groaned softly, kissing Sam harder in encouragement. 

“I love you, Gabe,” Sam whispered as he stroked the wings in all the places he knew turned Gabriel into a contented pile of goo, and every word sounded right.

“I love you too, kiddo,” murmured Gabriel, nuzzling Sam’s cheek and those words sounded correct too.

Sam rubbed his thumb over a particular spot in Gabriel’s secondary wing and the archangel immediately flopped onto his chest with a grunt of pleasure before nuzzling as Sam’s neck with soft whimpers of want.

“…Have you still got that picture?” Gabriel asked quietly and Sam smiled and grabbed it off the bedside table for them both to stare at.

Gabriel settled more comfortably on Sam’s chest as he turned to the picture and a tiny smile tugged at the corners of his lips as he wrapped his arms and wings around his human.

“I can’t believe we didn’t work it out sooner,” whispered Gabriel, gaze roaming over the photo. “How could we have forgotten this?”

“We worked it out before it was too late,” mumbled Sam, pressing his nose into his angel’s hair. “That’s all that matters.”

Gabriel closed his eyes, basking in the feeling of his lover bathing him in affection.

“…You’ve deprived me of seven months of sex. I hope you’re going to make it up to me,” whispered Sam after a few moments and Gabriel snorted into his neck.

“We’ve been unconscious and you’re telling me I’ve deprived you of sex? Seriously?”

“I’ve got blue balls.”

Gabriel huffed out a laugh and buried his nose deeper into Sam’s neck. “Whatever you say.”

He felt Sam smirk into his hair and he knew the hunter was plotting.

“Although… I suppose I had sex with Jess. Multiple times. I guess I don’t need it off you too; it’s not like you could do any better anyway, right?” He could hear the smug smirk in the human’s voice.

Gabriel clicked his fingers and the lights switched off. He lay in wait for a few moments until Sam chuckled quietly and kissed his head.

“Goodnight, Gabe,” he murmured adoringly before curling his arms around the archangel’s back and settling down to sleep, clearly thinking his teasing was falling on deaf ears.

When Sam closed his eyes, Gabriel slipped down his body and in under a second, had tugged down his boxers and was licking stripes over the hunter’s soft member.

Sam gasped and Gabriel grinned and did something clever with his tongue that had the human groaning and clutching at his wings.

“You should know by now not to challenge me, kiddo,” Gabriel grinned, wiggling his eyebrows as he nuzzled Sam’s rapidly stiffening length. “I always win.” 

Sam moaned as Gabriel swallowed him down.

“Nearly always,” Sam corrected through another groan and he plunged a finger into one of Gabriel’s oil glands, making the archangel choke for a second before he collected himself. He pulled off Sam with a wicked grin.

“Game on,” he winked and Sam smirked right back.

 

* * *

 

Dean peppered lazy kisses down Castiel’s spine. He’d missed this. He’d missed having Castiel sprawled over the bed for him, wings spread wide and inviting as he straddled the angel and wrung happy whimpers and groans from him.

He’d missed touching Castiel and if the angel’s quivering wings were anything to go by, he’d say Castiel had missed him too.

Dean thrust his hands into Castiel’s wings, ruffling the feathers and shifting the muscles beneath and Castiel whined desperately, arching his wings into Dean’s touch in a plea for more.

Dean raked his hands backwards, ruffling the feathers further as he nails scraped lightly over the skin beneath and Castiel groaned filthily and buried his face into the pillow.

After seven months of being trapped in a barn, Castiel’s wings were clearly touch-starved and with his grace very close to depletion, they were sore and aching terribly. Dean was determined to fix that.

He dug the heels of his palms into a twitching muscle in the centre of Castiel’s wings and the angel whimpered and sagged uselessly. Dean chuckled and kissed his shoulder with a teasing grin.

“That good?” He whispered and Castiel gargled out an incoherent noise of bliss.

Dean laughed softly and nuzzled his angel’s jaw before returning to his massaging of the wings.

After a while, he rolled the angel onto his back so he could work at the insides. Castiel looked half asleep and Dean smiled fondly at him, wondering how he could have forgotten about any of this.

Suddenly, Cas tugged him down to his chest and rubbed a soothing hand over Dean’s back, working all the knots out of his spine. Dean sighed and pressed his face into his lover’s neck. He was happy here. This felt like home.

Two large, fluffy wings curled around him protectively and Dean smiled and closed his eyes as he slipped his arms around his angel.

“Missed you,” whispered Dean and Castiel nuzzled his head gently.

“I never left,” he murmured, a puzzled frown in his voice and Dean shook his head and captured his lover’s lips.

“I mean I missed being with you. Like this. Should’ve known it was supposed to be you, not Lisa.”

Castiel carded his fingers through the hunter’s hair. “You did work it out,” he pointed out softly and Dean huffed quietly.

“Should’ve worked it out sooner.”

Castiel was quiet for a few moments before he turned to look at Dean.

“Are you… alright?” He asked carefully. “I know you and Lisa once shared a rather… intimate relationship. I can’t imagine how seeing her and Ben again must have affected you. Especially seeing as I was the cause of their memory loss,” he finished ashamedly, averting his gaze, but Dean caught his chin and propped himself up on one arm so he could stare at the angel.

“I guess it was a little sad to have them remember me in the dream and know they don’t here, but that was a long time ago, Cas. I’ve changed. I’ve moved on.” He quirked a small smile. “The truth is she’s not you and she never was. This, right here? This is where I’m happiest. With you. I’ve never felt this way about anyone before.” He shrugged with a playful grin. “What can I say? You’re the only one for me.”

Castiel’s feathers suddenly puffed up and Dean laughed because the angel was preening in pride at his words. He tugged the angel in for a rough hug and Castiel pressed as close as possible until he was moulded around Dean.

They fell asleep that way; finally at peace in both their hearts and minds and content in the fact that everything felt right and real.

The next morning, they would wake up to find Mary in the library, crying quietly at an old picture of her boys. She would see them again after seven months and sob even harder as she apologised for choosing the British Men of Letters over her own sons and abandoning them after only just being brought back to them.

A couple of weeks later, Lucifer’s son would be born and Castiel would die to protect him. Mary would sacrifice herself to trap Lucifer in another universe and Sam, Dean and Gabriel would be left staring brokenly at the remains of the blue-eyed seraph.

But as it was, Dean cuddled closer to his angel, blissfully unaware of the horrors to come and Castiel smiled as he tangled his fingers in Dean’s hair.

Tonight, Team Free Will would enjoy their time together, satisfied with the knowledge that they were exactly where they were meant to be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally finished guys! Hope you enjoyed this little fic and Jennifer, I hope this is something similar to what you were hoping for!
> 
> If anyone wants to have a little chat on Facebook, my name is 'Dancing Dog' and I have the same profile picture as I do on here! I love making new friends, so just pop me a message that you're from AO3 (I've been getting some odd requests, so please do pop me a message first)!
> 
> Happy fic browsing and a very Merry Christmas!

**Author's Note:**

> Original Prompt:
> 
>  
> 
> _Sam is with Jess, Dean is with Lisa, Cas is with Meg, and Gabriel is with Kali. But on a hunt, the four of them get captured by djinns strong enough to take down an arch angel._  
>  _In the dream, Sam was with Gabriel and Dean was with Cas._  
>  _Days pass in the dream and they fell more in love than they already were._  
>  _But someone woke them up and the dream faded away._  
>  _Did they want to leave or would they be forced to go back to their lives with the people they didn’t love anymore and would the feelings for the people they fell in love with in the dream stay the same or vanish?_
> 
> _Prompt by Jennifer Sansbury_


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